REVIEW: The Recent History of Seasonal Affective Disorder

Dr Åsa Jansson completed her PhD at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary University of London in 2014. Her thesis mapped the re-conceptualisation of melancholia as a modern biomedical mental disease in Victorian medicine. In this blog … Continue reading

Can governments cultivate love in their citizens?

Should liberal governments try to cultivate certain emotional states in their citizens? This is the interesting contention of the latest book from Martha C. Nussbaum, the leading philosopher of the emotions. In Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice, Nussbaum … Continue reading

Hera Cook on William Reddy

Dr Hera Cook is an historian of emotions and sexuality at the University of Otago, Wellington, with current interests in emotional management and inequality. Here she reviews William Reddy’s new book for the History of Emotions Blog. William Reddy is a historian whose work … Continue reading

Disturbing Practices

Laura Doan, Disturbing Practices: History, Sexuality and Women’s Experience of Modern War, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2013. Reviewed by Jane Mackelworth ‘The problem for the historian of sexuality is how to explore the sexual past, even the … Continue reading