Emotions are a very important aspect of human life. All human beings experience emotions in their lives because of different reasons and in different circumstances.
Emotions are very unique to human life and can be used as the basis of the difference between human beings and other primates on the planet earth. Emotions have important meaning to human beings depending on the context in which they are applied. Both positive and negative emotions tend to affect human life. As emotions continue affecting human life, people have engaged themselves in studies that try to search for the beginning of emotions in the society and the development process emotion have gone through to the current state. This also includes how people in society have undergone developments into better managers of their emotions.
Emotions in American society have a long-standing history starting from pre-modern colonial America. Emotions have since that time been part of human daily life. This has been observed at home, at the workplace, on the streets, and in other places that people interact. Different authors have adopted different approaches in their effort to provide answers to the history and origin of emotions such as anger, happiness, joy, envy, and many others. Anger is one of the ways people express their emotions. In society, many things spark anger. One of the things is oppression and unfairness in dealings. During the colonial times, American society was being oppressed by their colonial masters. Mistreatments were a very common phenomenon that led to anger in protest of such happenings. On the other hand, the British colonizers were also angered when the Americans were trying to rise against oppression. All human beings have to struggle to keep their anger at low levels to prevent the consequences it can have on their lives and those they are against.
People, therefore, adopt mechanisms of controlling their emotions for the sake of leaving in peace and harmony with friends, neighbors, and even strangers. Carol and Stearns (p214 )the book Anger: The Struggle for Emotional Control in America’s History, indicates that “the need to keep the lid on anger has the most persistent motif in the emotional reconstruction of the American personality that has been taking place in the past two centuries.” This sentiment indeed illustrates that emotions are a very essential aspect of human life in the sense that they shape personality. The personality of Americans has been under construction for the past two centuries and emotions have played a very significant role in this process. In their history with emotions, Americans have become people who can manage their anger and emotions in their current state. This process of personality development can also be viewed in terms of emotional development. This article is emphatic of the fact that the current emotional situations in Americans have a long history that was characterized by anger and other undesirable components. Americans as a result of their emotional development, are people who can easily suppress anger and avert the bad repercussions that are associated with the vice.
American society has had a long history of controlling anger. This book is relevant in the way it has utilized a wide selection of sources to make the point on emotional control anger. The book has sourced from psychology, psychiatry, and other important social sciences. All this has been in an effort to explain to the world how Americans have achieved success in emotional development and control of anger. They have sought biological explanations for the phenomenon of anger in human beings. This has really been of advantage to their argument because of the factual evidence that biology provides to support the existence and control of anger. They write that “anger is biologically programmed within us to help us to appropriately respond to outside stimuli that may be noxious.” (p238) This biological; background explains the origin of anger from within the body’s sensory system and how it is managed and controlled using appropriate body mechanisms.
This source provided a better theoretical framework from which historians could study the evolution of emotions in American society. From this basis, other assumptions and theories concerning human emotion could be brought. This particular source is important in identifying the beginning of anger suppression in the Americans. This has been indicated by the book to have been around the early 1800. The study of emotionology gained momentum in the 1830s with Americans discovering much about their emotional life and the need to control their anger. Many factors contributed to this emotional development. First of all the book cites democracy as one of the courses. For the spirit of democracy to be spread and used effectively, there was the need for Americans to control their anger and tolerance.
The beginning of anger control has been indicted by the source to have been the family unit. It has been argued that the family as a unit has been associated with emotions of anger since time immemorial. People start expressing anger to their wives, husbands, or children before moving out to the streets or at the workplace. The family was an important unit that had to be anger-free. Most people in America started controlling their anger from the family level.
Fitzpatrick in the book “Happiness and Toska”, manages to bring out several aspects of emotions in the people who were living in the Prewar Soviet Union. Two components of emotions have been addressed in the article. Emphasis has been given to the emotions of the Soviets in terms of enthusiasm and anger that was directed towards the enemies. There also existed widespread emotions of fear, malice, and individual happiness. All these aspects of the Soviet people demonstrated how their lives were shaped and influenced by emotions. Emotions were caused by politics which meant a lot to some people in the country.
Fitzpatrick is categorical in the identification of happiness and grief in the article. The causes and effects of happiness and grief have been mentioned in the article. Human life in the Soviet was characterized by grief and happiness just like the case is in society today. The changes that took place as people experienced grief and happiness have a lot of contribution to the study of emotions. The existence of many states of grief and happiness has also been well taken care of by the author. Such expressions make it possible for the emotional aspect of the people to be well studied.
The aspects of emotions were found in the political environment. This has also been adequately addressed by the author. The approach adopted by the author of this article necessitated the gathering of enough information to shade more light on the emotional state of affairs in the country at that time. Fitzpatrick explains the events such as war that led to the expression of grief. The people were not used to grief but with the experiences and the stories that were told the expression of grief was manifested. The article brings out the existence of general and individual happiness. That in the 1930s individual happiness had faded away because of a number of reasons. Private happiness was something common in the rich families as the poor could not afford it due to the prevailing conditions after the war which subjected most people to grief as they counted their losses.
When compared to Carol and Peter Stearns, this article is limited in its source of information since it does not tackle well the history of emotions. Only the state of affairs during the time has been illustrated in the article. A good example is a biological component that is missing in the explanation of emotions by Fitzpatrick.
The author fails to mention how happiness was not evident amongst the people despite the losses and other consequences of war. This should have been handled well to inform people of sources of happiness especially after the war was concluded. Theoretically, this article chooses to ignore the existence of other expressions of emotions such as joy and love. There is an assumption that people were not undergoing these emotions as a result of the repercussions of the war. The paper further assumes that the achievement of collective happiness was easier than the achievement of individual happiness. Besides the shortcomings, the article has managed to provide information on the existence and development of the different facets of emotions in the country as the people continued to suffer from the colonialists.
Christina Kotchemidova in her article introduces the concept of emotionology in the history of emotions. It is because each society has to come up with rules or norms that govern the conduct of its people as they express their emotions. The issue of feeling rules is advanced by her from a theoretical approach and it highlights the existence of peace and harmony in the society as a result of the norms that are associated with emotions.
The use of exceptional circumstances to advance arguments on the existence of emotions has been tackled by Edward John Harcourt. In the book “The whipping of Richard Moore: Reading Emotion in Reconstruction America”, as early as 1866 there was evidence of emotions. The case of the former slave was an account of how emotions featured in the reconstruction process in the country. Political violence was a common phenomenon that was used by the perpetrators of racism and discrimination against racial minority groups. It was therefore a very important aspect of reconstruction and the emotional aspect of the people. A reminder of suffering like the unfortunate events Richard Moore had to be subjected to that shaped the emotions at those early times.
This author manages to bring out the issue of personal emotions unlike in the other articles which have focused on generalized emotions like happiness in society. However, the approach taken by the author fails to look at the causative factors responsible for the existing emotional states of people in society at that time. In the book, it has been indicated that the discrimination against the black minority groups in the elections at that time was an illustration of the negative impact such events affected the reconstruction process of American society.
The article on Whipping of Richard Moore looks at the bigger picture of the events happening during that time. It is through such a scenario that it can view the situation of emotions from a wider perspective. The case of Moore is viewed from his position and also forms the position of his assailants. This approach enables the author to reveal a lot concerning the cause of emotions when discrimination and violence dominated society. Emotions could easily be sparked with such episodes directed to individuals just because of their racial backgrounds. This brings out the uniqueness in this style of the author unlike in the other sources where things have been looked at only from one angle. This particular source also identifies the weaknesses in the process of compiling information concerning the whipping of Richard Moore. The way the commentary on the story plus the incident itself brings out a clear picture of a compound work that has been done to uncover some truths about the state of emotions.
The author notes that “the present condition of things in the state is too bad to be endured..” (Harcourt, p271) This presents the readers with more evidence that the prevailing political situation was to be blamed for the emotions that people were going through that really affected their welfare. On this note, it can be argued that the author has been categorical in mentioning the causative agent that had led to emotions of anger in the people of one nation against themselves. This is unlike in the other articles where anger had been directed to people of a different country who were the colonizers. Feelings of emotions have also been demonstrated by the media during that time. According to the article, the media were expressing their emotions towards the story of Moore because they were loyalists. This has been depicted in their empathy as they recorded his story in the newspapers. This further demonstrates the role the society played at that time in influencing the emotions of people especially those who were affected by racism and discrimination by the Ku Klux.
Although politically driven violence has been incorporated into the social and political life at that time, it is important to note that the subject of emotions has been handled with the traditional set of methodologies that do not adequately utilize the emotion logical contexts that inform the readers of the violence and reconstruction process.
Susan J Matt in the book “Children’s Envy and the Emergence of the Modern Consumer Ethics, 1890-1930” has been fundamental in explaining and origin of envy as an emotion in children who were born during that particular time. This source is quite unique in the way it explores matters of consumer behavior and how they played a significant role in influencing emotional aspects, especially in children. The effect of consumer behavior started being felt on social life in the late 18th century and the early times of 19th century as noted in this source. According to this source, most researchers in the 1920s dwelt on the investigation into the issues of children and how their emotional life was influenced by the environment that was full of consumerism.
The change in the way children managed envy has been indicated in the essay and how it impacted the consumer economy in the 1930s. Indeed it is vital to mention that envy as an emotional aspect of humans has been explored by this source. The author describes the origin and nature of envy from a sociological perspective.
The book explains how society thought that it was necessary to teach children to develop well emotionally through material things like toys. This was a major step in life as it trained children towards cooperation than competition in society. This significant shift in emotional training can be said to have contributed to change for the better in the 19th century.
It was important that for envious children to be more productive adults in the future, they had to be trained on how to conquer their envy. The book mentions “keep in mind that a jealous child will be a jealous adult, an individual who will constantly be resenting his friend’s success, who works poorly with others.” (Susan, p295) This book has been instrumental in demonstrating how the adults trained the young ones into becoming responsible adults in the future who are capable of controlling their envy and appreciating other people’s success. This was specifically undertaken to believe that the society would better be empowered through cooperation and hard work by everyone than with competition and envy against one another.
This has not been well brought out in the approaches taken by the other sources in the attempt to explain the history of emotions.
The books have left some questions unanswered concerning how people have transformed their management of emotional-related problems like stress and grief.
Most people agree to the fact that these emotional issues have become prevalent in life and have shaped the historical development of emotions in human life. They should therefore not be left behind when accounting for emotional development in both children and adults.
Future authorship on the history of emotions should focus on issues of courtship and marriage that have continued to be common and changes in human life and specifically in the modern world. Emotional problems like suicide would also be an interesting area to be explored by future authors as they would provide answers to some questions that so many people cannot explain about suicide tendencies especially in the youths. The impact of social interactions and religion is also an area that needs to be explored because they also account for the emotional transformation society has gone through. If well tackled by future authors, the aspects of all the aspects of human life would be looked at from a holistic approach and would facilitate the study of emotions and their history in society.
Articles Reviewed
Carol and Peter Stearns, Anger: The Struggle for Emotional Control in America’s History (syllabus) Christina Kotchemidova, “From Good Cheer to ‘Drive-By Smiling’: A Social History of Cheerfulness”.
Sheila Fitzpatrick, (2004) “Happiness and Toska: An Essay in the History of Emotions in Pre-war Soviet Russia”.
Edward John Harcourt, (2002) “The Whipping of Richard Moore: Reading Emotion in Reconstruction America”.
Susan J. Matt, (2002) “Children’s Envy and the Emergence of the Modern Consumer Ethic, 1890-1930”.