A Human History of Emotion, Richard FirthGodbehere
A Human History of Emotion, Richard FirthGodbehere
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A Human History of Emotion
How the Way We Feel Built the World We Know

Author: Richard Firth-Godbehere

Narrator: Richard Firth-Godbehere

Unabridged: 11 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/16/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

A sweeping exploration of the ways in which emotions shaped the course of human history, and how our experience and understanding of emotions have evolved along with us.
 
We humans like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, who, as a species, have relied on calculation and intellect to survive. But many of the most important moments in our history had little to do with cold, hard facts and a lot to do with feelings. Events ranging from the origins of philosophy to the birth of the world’s major religions, the fall of Rome, the Scientific Revolution, and some of the bloodiest wars that humanity has ever experienced can’t be properly understood without understanding emotions.

 In A Human History of Emotion, Richard Firth-Godbehere takes readers on a fascinating and wide ranging tour of the central and often under-appreciated role emotions have played in human societies around the world and throughout history—from Ancient Greece to Gambia, Japan, the Ottoman Empire, the United States, and beyond.
 
Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, art, and religious history, A Human History of Emotion vividly illustrates how our understanding and experience of emotions has changed over time, and how our beliefs about feelings—and our feelings themselves—profoundly shaped us and the world we inhabit. 

Reviews

Goodreads review by Morgan on November 21, 2021

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: The publisher of this book gave me an advanced copy to review (for free). That being said, I liked it so much I bought the Audible version (for cash). I do not feel that my experience of this book was unduly influenced by the afore mentioned transaction. But I do understand enou......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on November 29, 2021

Are emotions innate or culturally constructed? Many psychologists/social scientists choose one side or the other, but a new field of research, known as the history of emotions, views things differently. Historians of emotion (I didn’t know this job existed either) acknowledge that humans share an ev......more

Goodreads review by Brian on June 26, 2023

This is a chatty, rambling tour of concepts about emotion over the course of centuries and around much of the world. Actually, Firth-Godbehere is a digustologist, specializing in the study of what different people find revolting, and why. This specialization gives him a basis for comparing numerous......more

Goodreads review by Lidya on April 19, 2023

This book was a combination of philosophy, history, science and every other genre under the sun and I was so down for it. There was so much interesting, engaging information given to me and I think what made the experience enjoyable was that I didn't see any of it coming. I'm not sure what sort of e......more

Goodreads review by Rohit on November 25, 2021

One piece of wrong info in the book, alexander did not just turned back and went home because he and his army was tired and homesick. He was defeated in india and wounded in battle because of which he died later. Later on a lot of his generals tried invading and one of them (seleucus) made as far as......more