genealogyofanger in the struggle for political control and measured the growing
significanceofpublic emotions in modern mass societies.²⁰Moredetailed stud-
ies on the nineteenth and earlytwentieth century have used the critical lens of
emotionstoexplain the sudden appearance of moral panics, ethnic resentments,
and mass delusions.Literary studies on the culture of public sentiment,the phe-
nomenon of nervousness, and the aesthetics of shock have extended these lines
of inquiry to modern and modernist sensibilities.
The studyofthe history of emotions and of emotions in history has proven
particularlyuseful in arguing for the decisive role of sentimentsinthe making of
new collectivities–in totalitarianregimesaswell as liberal democracies.From
Adam Smith, whose theory of moral sentiments establishes sympathyasthe
basis of all community,toJeanJacques Rousseau, whose reflection on inequality
introduces compassion asaquintessential democratic sentiment,toKarl Marx,
whose theory of class struggle calls for solidarity as the first steptoward afuture
classless society,clear connections between public and privateemotions and the
cultures of democracy and capitalism can be identified. Recent book titles such
asPassionate Politics,Emotions in Politics,Moving Politics,andFeeling Politics
attest to the sense of possibility as well as anxiety with which the convergence
of politics and emotion has been examined for its positive and negative effects
on modern democracy,civil society,and public life. By the sametoken, evocative
terms such as emotional labor,emotional capital, and emotional investment
have been introduced to describe the emotional economies of capitalism in
the postindustrial age, especiallyinlow-wageservice jobs.²¹Critical theorists, so-
cial philosophersaswell as sociologists and political scientists have noted the
Forreferences in chronological order,aside fromthe Reddybook citedearlier,see PeterN.
and Carol Z. Stearns,Anger:TheStruggle for Emotional ControlinAmerica’sHistory(Chicago:
University of Chicago Press,1986);William M. Reddy,The Navigation ofFeeling:AFramework
for the HistoryofEmotions(Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2001); andBarbara H. Rose-
nwein,Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages(Ithaca, NY:Cornell University Press,
2007)andGenerations ofFeeling:AHistoryofEmotions,600– 1700 (Cambridge:Cambridge Uni-
versity Press,2015).
The bibliographical references (in chronological order)are to Jeff Goodwin,James M.Jasper,
andFrancesca Polletta, eds.,Passionate Politics:Emotions and SocialMovements(Chicago:Uni-
versity of Chicago Press,2001); Nicolas Demertzis,ed.,Emotions in Politics:TheAffect Dimension
in PoliticalTension(NewYork: PalgraveMacmillan,2013); and Michael Ureand MervynFrost,
eds.,ThePolitics of Compassion(London: Routledge,2014). The twoterms mentioned are
takenfrom ArlieRussell Hochschild inTheOutsourced Self:Intimate Life inMarket Times
(NewYork: Metropolitan,2012) andStrangers in theirOwnLand: Anger andMourning on the
American Right(NewYork: The New Press,2016). In the German context,terms such as the neo-
logismWutbürger(enraged citizen) andBernhardPörksen’sconcept ofEmpörungsdemokratie
(democracy of indignation) point to similar developments and debates.
24 Introduction