Soft

This erudite and immensely entertaining book offers a sweeping tour of emotion and culture that spans centuries, masterfully connecting the feelings we experience today to their deep historical roots. Ferdinand Mount acts as a delightful guide through this millennium-long history of emotion, using vivid snapshots, strange anecdotes, and compelling storytelling to reveal how our inner lives have been shaped by the past.

What makes this cultural history distinctive is its ability to make complex ideas accessible through wonderfully weird historical examples that illuminate the evolution of human feeling. Readers fascinated by the intersection of psychology, history, and anthropology will find a rich exploration of how our most personal experiences are, in fact, profoundly historical. Mount’s narrative leaves you with a transformed understanding of your own emotional landscape, seeing the ghosts of past centuries in your most modern reactions.