Book Series "Emotions in History"

The series, jointly edited by Ute Frevert (MPIB) and Thomas Dixon (Queen Mary, University of London) with Oxford University Press takes various perspectives on emotions by drawing on the history of science, medicine, psychology, literature, art, religion, politics, and economics. Contributions range from medieval to modern periods and reach across regional and national boundaries.

Members of the "Center for the History of Emotions" are authors or contributors of the following titles of the series:

Bettina Hitzer, The History of Cancer and Emotions in Twentieth-century Germany. Oxford / New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2022.

Different people feel different emotions when they are diagnosed with cancer. Both today and a century ago, fear and hope, shame and disgust, sadness and joy are and were the emotions experienced by many cancer patients and their loved ones. But these emotions do not just have significance for the people who feel them. They have also exerted a surprisingly profound influence on how hospitals and laboratories dealt with cancer, how early detection campaigns portrayed it, and how doctors talked about it with their patients. Bettina Hitzer details the history of cancer and emotions in twentieth-century Germany and thus follows the cancer-associated transformations of emotional regimes, emotional politics, and emotional experiences through five different political systems. In doing so, the study underscores that political caesuras resonate in the immediate corporeality of the history of emotions.

Joseph Ben Prestel, Emotional Cities, Debates on Urban Change in Berlin and Cairo, 1860-1910. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Margrit Pernau/ Helge Jordheim/ Emmanuelle Saada/ Orit Baschkin/ Christian Bailey/ Einar Wigen/ Orit Bashkin/ Mana Kia/ Mohinder Singh/ Rochona Majumdar/ Angelika C. Messner/ Oleg Benesch/ Myongkyu Park/ Jan Ifversen, Civilizing Emotions. Concepts in Nineteenth Century Asia and Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the vocabulary of civility and civilization is very much at the forefront of political debate. Most of these debates proceed as if the meaning of these words were self-evident. This is where Civilizing Emotions intervenes, tracing the history of the concepts of civility and civilization and thus adding a level of self-reflexivity to the present debates. Unlike previous histories, Civilizing Emotions takes a global perspective, highlighting the roles of civility and civilization in the creation of a new and hierarchized global order in the era of high imperialism and its entanglements with the developments in a number of well-chosen European and Asian countries. Emotions were at the core of the practices linked to the creation of a new global order in the nineteenth century. Civilizing Emotions explores why and how emotions were an asset in civilizing peoples and societies—their control and management, but also their creation and their ascription to different societies and social groups. The study is a contribution to the history of emotions, to global history, and to the history of concepts, three rapidly developing and innovative research areas which are here being brought together for the first time.

Jan Plamper, The History of Emotions. An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Ute Frevert/ Pascal Eitler/ Stephanie Olsen/ Uffa Jensen/ Margrit Pernau/ Daniel Brückenhaus/ Magdalena Beljan/ Benno Gammerl/ Anja Laukötter/ Bettina Hitzer/ Jan Plamper/ Juliane Brauer/ Joachim C. Häberlen, Learning How to Feel: Children's Literature and Emotional Socialization, 1870-1970. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Learning How to Feel explores the ways in which children and adolescents learn not just how to express emotions that are thought to be pre-existing, but actually how to feel. The volume assumes that the embryonic ability to feel unfolds through a complex dialogue with the social and cultural environment and specifically through reading material. The fundamental formation takes place in childhood and youth. The multi-authored historical monograph uses children's literature and advice manuals to access the training practices and learning processes for a wide range of emotions in the modern age.The volume innovatively draws a framework for broad historical change during the course of the period. Emotional interaction between adult and child gave way to a focus on emotional interactions among children, while gender categories became less distinct. Children were increasingly taught to take responsibility for their own emotional development, to find "authenticity" for themselves.

Translation into Chinese: Owl Publishing House, 2018
Translation into German: Beltz Juventa, 2021

Ute Frevert/ Monique Scheer/ Anne Schmidt/ Pascal Eitler/ Bettina Hitzer/ Nina Verheyen/ Benno Gammerl/ Christian Bailey/ Margrit Pernau, Emotional Lexicons. Continuity and Change in the Vocabulary of Feeling 1700-2000. (Series Emotions in History). Oxford: Oyford University Press, 2014.

Emotions are as old as humankind. But what do we know about them and what importance do we assign to them? Emotional Lexicons is the first cultural history of terms of emotion found in German, French, and English language encyclopaedias since the late seventeenth century. This knowledge was (and still is) related to fundamental questions regarding the human condition: Are feelings of mental or physical nature? Can emotions be interpreted? Do animals have feelings? Are women more emotional than men? Are there children’s and grown-ups’ emotions? Is it possible to "civilize feelings"? Can emotions cause illnesses? Are groups capable of emotions? Can feelings bond or divide? The historically changing answers to these questions demonstrate that the knowledge about emotions has always been closely linked with the social, cultural and political structures of modern societies. more