The Politics of Humiliation

Reviews / Votes

Frevert, director of the Center for the History of Emotions in Berlin, largely focuses on German history in this book, but she draws in plenty of examples from other countries. At its heart is a desire to understand why people feel the need to humiliate others in public, even one's own children. * Philip Dwyer, University of Newcastle, Australia, European History Quarterly * the book is well written, thoughtful, and interesting. I much enjoyed reading it. * Prof Samuel Clark, Reviews in History * ...very interesting... * Luigi Lonardo, The International Spectator * Frevert is not a pessimist. She reminds us that humiliating practices are effective because they have an audience who share the moral code of the aggressor. Once that moral code is denied, the spectacle of cruelty collapses ... the central message of the book is that there are choices to be made: and maintaining the dignity of the more marginalised members of our society is the right one. * Joanna Bourke, Prospect * Ute Frevert is a brilliant historian, who has brought her tremendous intellectual powers to the subject of humiliation. This is an extraordinary book, and so wide-ranging in the way in which it approaches the subject of humiliation. * James Daybell, Histories of the Unexpected * From flogging to Facebook, from humiliation administered by the 17th-century state to 21st-century society's self-generated online shaming, from honour to dignity: that is the story of modernity in Ute Frevert's masterful telling. But of course it's less linear, more complicated - and more interesting. A dazzling book, full of surprises. Get a copy and read it. Or shame on you! * Professor Jan Plamper, author of The History of Emotions: An Introduction *