Shame: A Brief History (History of Emotions)

This book explores what we know about the history of shame, from early human societies onward, and explicitly links historical patterns and complexities to current issues surrounding shame. As both a personal and a social emotion – individuals experience shame, but societies or social groups variously rely on shaming –shame is a particularly interesting candidate for historical analysis. A related analytical focus emerges from the tension between current psychological views on shame, which emphasize the destructive results of the emotion, and the wide reliance on shame in many past and contemporary societies. The most obvious historical target on shame involves the attacks on the emotion – after virtually universal acceptance in agricultural societies – in Western culture from the late 18^th^ century onward. This book explores this change and its causes, tracing the impact but also the limitations of the shift, while also placing the new patterns in some comparative context regarding societies that remained less individualistic. Finally, the book picks up on several recent new developments, particularly in the United States, as shaming experiences a partial resurgence thanks to new partisan divides and the impact of social media. Shame, in some, offers a diverse and fascinating history, as part of the growing enthusiasm for exploring emotions in the past; and the history connects to a number of very real current issues about shame and shaming. Shame varies as an individual experience and in its manifestations across time and cultures. Groups establish identity and enforce social behaviors through shame and shaming, while attempts at shaming often provoke a social or political backlash. Yet historians often neglect shame's power to complicate individual, international, cultural, and political relationships. Peter N. Stearns draws on his long career as a historian of emotions to provide the foundational text on shame's history and how this history contributes to contemporary issues around the emotion. Summarizing current research, Stearns unpacks the major debates that surround this complex emotion. He also surveys the changing role of shame in the United States from the nineteenth century to today, including shame's revival as a force in the 1960s and its place in today's social media. Looking ahead, he maps the abundant opportunities for future historical research and historically informed interdisciplinary scholarship. Written for interested readers and scholars alike, Shame combines significant new research with a wider synthesis. | Cover Title Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments 1. Exploring Shame: The Interdisciplinary Context 2. Shame and Shaming in Premodern Societies 3. The Impact of Modernity: Some Possibilities 4. Reconsidering Shame in Western Society: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 5. The Revival of Shame: Contemporary History Afterword Notes Further Reading Index Author | A Choice Outstanding Title, 2018 — A Choice Outstanding Title, 2018 | Peter N. Stearns is University Professor of World History and the provost emeritus of George Mason University. His many books include Peace in World History and World History: The Basics , and he is the coeditor of Doing Emotions History . Shame varies as an individual experience and its manifestations across time and cultures. Groups establish identity and enforce social behaviors through shame and shaming, while attempts at shaming often provoke a social or political backlash. Yet historians often neglect shame 's power to complicate individual, international, cultural, and political relationships. Peter N. Stearns draws on his long career as a historian of emotions to provide the foundational text on shame 's history and how this history contributes to contemporary issues around the emotion. Summarizing current research, Stearns unpacks the major debates that surround this complex emotion. He also surveys the changing role of shame in the United States from the nineteenth century to today, including shame 's revival as a force in the 1960s and its place in today 's social media. Looking ahead, Stearns maps the abundant opportunities for future historical research and historically informed interdisciplinary scholarship. Written for interested readers and scholars alike, Shame combines significant new research with a wider synthesis.