Nervous States: How Feeling Took Over the World

Description

Why do we no longer trust experts, facts and statistics? Why has politics become so fractious and warlike? What caused the populist political upheavals of recent years? How can the history of ideas help us understand our present? In this bold and far-reaching exploration of our new political landscape, William Davies reveals how feelings have come to reshape our world. Drawing deep on history, philosophy, psychology and economics, he shows how some of the fundamental assumptions that defined the modern world have dissolved. With advances in science and medicine, the division between mind and body is no longer so clear-cut. The spread of digital and military technology has left us not quite at war nor exactly at peace. In the murky new space between mind and body, between war and peace, lie nervous states: with all of us relying increasingly on feeling rather than fact. In a book of profound insight and astonishing breadth, William Davies reveals the origins of this new political reality. Nervous States is a compelling and essential guide to the turbulent times we are living through. Contents......Page 2 About the Book......Page 3 About the Author......Page 4 Also by William Davies......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Title Page......Page 7 Introduction......Page 8 Part One: The Decline of Reason......Page 16 1. Democracy of Feeling......Page 17 2. Knowledge for Peace......Page 40 3. Progress in Question......Page 70 4. The Body Politic......Page 96 Part Two: The Rise of Feeling......Page 121 5. Knowledge for War......Page 122 6. Guessing Games......Page 146 7. War of Words......Page 170 8. Between War and Peace......Page 194 Notes......Page 217 Acknowledgements......Page 228 Index......Page 229 Copyright......Page 261