Explosive Moderne

About the key emotions of our time: politics of fear, spirals of disappointment, people in anger. In her new book, Eva Illouz examines our tumultuous era from the perspective of the emotions that shape it. Fear, disappointment, and anger, as well as shame or love, are deeply embedded in the social arrangements of Western modernity and are intensively managed by its economy, politics, and culture. They are psychologically relevant, morally significant, politically effective, and highly ambivalent. This makes the present in which we live so explosive and urgent.

Illouz illuminates these phenomena in a masterful composition of sociological analyses, historical vignettes, and readings of iconic works of world literature. In precise portraits of the emotions that put society under tension, she sheds light on the mechanisms of their influence and the reasons for their powerful presence.

The fading of the American Dream and the fragility of liberal democracy, the hamster wheel of capitalism, and the conflicts surrounding identity, as well as anti-Semitism, racism, and misogyny: without reference to the key emotions of explosive modernity, they cannot be understood, contained, or fought against. This is demonstrated by this captivating and timely book.