Emotions lie at our very core as human beings. How we process and
grapple with our emotions, how and what we emote, and how we respond to
the emotions of others, constitute the essence of our social universe.
In a very real sense, we exist only through the prism of our emotions.
And yet the profound effect of human emotion on history, politics,
religion, and culture, remains underexamined. While the influence of
emotion in such realms as American foreign policy has been
well-documented, other emotional aspects of American history have
escaped notice. What role, for instance, does emotion have in the
practice of African American religion? How do shame and self- hatred
influence American conceptions of identity? How does our emotional life
change as we age? To what degree is American consumerism driven by basic
human emotion?
With this landmark anthology, historians Peter N. Stearns and Jan Lewis
provide a road map of the American emotional landscape. From the
emotional world of working-class Massachusetts to the prayers of
evangelical and pentecostal women and the gendered nature of black rage,
these essays provide a multicultural snapshot of the unique nature, and
evolution, of American emotions.