Politics, Identity and Emotion

Politics is a field of mighty passions fueled by the identities of nation, religion, culture, gender, and class. Yet the study of politics is dominated by narrowly rationalist perspectives that see emotions as fleeting reactions and consider citizens primarily in terms of their individual interests. In this wide-ranging book, Paul Hoggett argues that human feelings and identities are constitutive of both personal and political life. Engaging with major debates in political theory, sociology, and psychoanalysis, he brings fresh insights to a range of issues: dynamics of political protest, intractable conflicts, fundamentalism and populism, the new political charismatics, the nature of forgiveness, and the relationship between anxiety and governance. The book is conceptually innovative and accessible, carefully introducing different theories of collective emotion and group identity and making extensive use of case studies from the U.S., England, and across the globe.