A year on from the launch of this blog, interest continues to grow apace in the field of history of emotions. I recently posted a list of our Top 10 blog posts during our first twelve months. This follow-up anniversary post surveys … Continue reading
The History of Emotions Blog was launched in May 2011, with this welcome message from Tiffany Watt-Smith and myself. Since then Tiffany has moved on to become a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, and we have been joined by Jules Evans … Continue reading
Colin Jones is Professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London, and a member of the steering group of the Centre for the History of the Emotions. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and is currently President … Continue reading
Over at the excellent Mind Hacks blog, is what appears to be the first recorded account of a psychedelic mushroom experience in Britain, from 1799. A forty year-old father of four, JS, collected wild mushrooms in London’s Green Park and cooked … Continue reading
As a historian, the four words in front of me made my heart skip a beat – and not in an ‘our eyes met across a crowded room’ sort of way. Pencilled in the archival catalogue was a note about … Continue reading
Which emotion links some people’s attitudes to the banking bonuses, journalists hacking the voicemail of Milly Dowler’s parents, our reaction to eating bitter lemons, the smell of Hydrogen Sulphate, and the Holocaust? The answer is disgust. Disgust is a powerful … Continue reading
The Commission on Assisted Dying (COAD) published its report this month, recommending ‘providing the choice of assisted dying for terminally ill people.’ The report’s proposed changes focus specifically and exclusively upon ‘terminal illness’. David Cameron indicated prior to the report’s … Continue reading
The history of emotions starts 2012 in good health and promises to continue to be a thriving and growing area of historical interest, both among scholars and more widely in the year ahead. By my reckoning there were at least 20 international … Continue reading
I’m fascinated by the idea of uncontrollable dancing. It seems a world away now, but it was once a familiar cultural phenomenon. In ancient Greek culture, for example, we read of the wild followers of Dionysus, also known as ho … Continue reading
There’ve been plenty of good articles on the history of emotions in the media in the last few weeks, some of which were written by or quoted scholars at the Centre. In the Telegraph, William Leith asked whatever happened to … Continue reading