Our Emotions and Culture

“With this book, E. Doyle McCarthy cements her standing as a critical guide to the emotional architecture emerging from capitalism’s economy that permeates personal and cultural dramas. With conceptual clarity and brilliant examples, we can appreciate how emotions, meanings, and relationships are cultivated in present-day media culture engulfing identities, love, play, and politics.” — David L. Altheide, Regents’ Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University, USA “Our Emotions and Culture: How Modern Life Changes Us is a brilliant book. Sociologist E Doyle McCarthy invites us to interrogate the intersection between self, society, and culture. She offers readers a sophisticated theoretical vocabulary to understand contemporary emotional life using excellent illustrations to contextualize her arguments. More importantly, she gives us an original perspective on why emotions matter to us more than ever.” — Natalia Ruiz-Junco, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology, Auburn University, USA “The particular contributions of this book are articulating the social/cultural nature of emotions and emphasizing historical contexts and change. In so doing, it offers a deep challenge to our typical way of understanding emotions as conditions arising from within individuals. As described nicely in the conclusion, this understanding encourages us to understand the ways in which we are influenced by the surrounding culture.” — Donileen R. Loseke, Professor Emerita, Department of Sociology, University of South Florida, USA