Anger
WARNING
You are viewing an older version of the Yalebooks website. Please visit out new website with more updated information and a better user experience: https://www.yalebooks.com
The Conflicted History of an Emotion
Barbara H. Rosenwein
View Inside
Format: HardcoverPrice: $26.00
All of us think we know when we are angry, and we are sure we can recognize anger in others as well. But this is only superficially true. We see anger through lenses colored by what we know, experience, and learn.
Barbara H. Rosenwein traces our many conflicting ideas about and expressions of anger, taking the story from the Buddha to our own time, from anger’s complete rejection to its warm reception. Rosenwein explores how anger has been characterized by gender and race, why it has been tied to violence and how that is often a false connection, how it has figured among the seven deadly sins and yet is considered a virtue, and how its interpretation, once largely the preserve of philosophers and theologians, has been gradually handed over to scientists—with very mixed results. Rosenwein shows that the history of anger can help us grapple with it today.
“In our own age, so driven by anger, Rosenwein’s tour de force is a historical primer on where the very idea of anger has come from, what it means, and what we can do to face it.”—Jacob Soll, author of The Reckoning
“This is a fascinating and ambitious survey of a range of takes on anger from many traditions and time periods. The interweaving of the solid history with contemporary issues is particularly stimulating, as is the recognition that the emotion can play a constructive role.”—Peter N. Stearns, author of Shame: A Brief History
Publication Date: July 14, 2020
13 color illus.
