A new focus on emotion is changing our understanding of history

Emotions are an important part of history and politics. Yet at the dawn of the twenty-first century, there was a growing sense that historians and social scientists had neglected the emotions and failed to think seriously about them. Since then, there has been explosive interest in the history of emotions. What precipitated this development and what has this focus on emotion added to our historical understanding?

In the latest issue of History and Theory, Senior Researcher Johannes Lang reviews the new histories of emotion. Systematic attention to emotions not only adds nuance to a historical narrative, Lang argues, but also fundamentally affects our ideas about how history actually happens.