Description

A dazzlingly original analysis of how emotions shape the times we are living in by one of Britain’s most exciting thinkers

‘A masterpiece’ New York Times

‘Insightful and well-written’ Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens

How have feelings come to shape the world around us? Why has politics become so fractious and warlike? What might the future hold?

In this bold and compelling exploration of our new political reality, William Davies reveals how feelings have come to reshape our world. Drawing on history, philosophy, psychology and economics, Nervous States is an essential guide to the turbulent times we are living through.

Publisher Review

We should all read William Davies's Nervous States, a concise, penetrating exploration of the role played by negative emotions in our recent politics and culture -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Evening Standard, **Books of the Year** * Wide-ranging yet brilliantly astute... Davies is a wild and surprising thinker who also happens to be an elegant writer - a wonderful and eminently readable combination. Nervous States covers 400 years of intellectual history, technological innovation and economic development, seamlessly weaving in such disparate intellects as Carl von Clausewitz, Friedrich von Hayek and Hannah Arendt. -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times * The roots of our current anxieties are traced in [Nervous States,] an absorbing book fizzing with ideas... Davies is a wonderfully alert and nimble guide and his absorbing and edgy book will help us feel our way to a better future. -- Suzanne Moore * Observer * If you read one book about contemporary politics this year, make it this one. William Davies is as acute and accurate on the shifts we are enduring as on the deep roots behind contemporary thinking (or not thinking, I should add). -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday * [An] interdisciplinary masterpiece. -- Mark Green * New York Times *