Fear: An Alternative History of the World

'Extraordinary' Ai Weiwei 'Brilliant' Simon Schama Fear has long been a driving force - perhaps the driving force - of world history: a coercive tool of power and a catalyst for radical change. Here, Robert Peckham traces its transformative role over a millennium, from fears of famine and war to anxieties over God, disease, technology and financial crises. In a landmark global history that ranges from the Black Death to the terror of the French Revolution, the AIDS pandemic to climate change, Peckham reveals how fear made us who we are, and how understanding it can equip us to face the future.

About the Author :
Robert Peckham is a cultural historian and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. The founder of Open Cube, which promotes the integration of the humanities with the sciences and technology, he was previously Professor of History and M.B. Lee Endowed Professor in the Humanities and Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. He has held fellowships at Cambridge, Oxford, LSE and King's College London. He lives in New York.

Review :
In this remarkable study, Peckham explores how fear has been used to both assert and challenge authority during the last 700 years ... Peckham's brilliant survey of fear is both erudite and wide-ranging ... In a modern world characterised by 'illiberal democracy and authoritarian populism', this important book offers much-needed insight, including a nuanced vision of fear that 'sees grounds for hope, not despair, in uncertainty'. Compelling An ambitious deep dive into history [An] elegant synthesis of centuries of intellectual history ... Peckham's mapping of fear across centuries of thought offers an opportunity to reflect on a persistent political geography of anxiety Clear and engaging ... readers keen to grasp a better understanding of the history of the world will be entranced by Peckham's ability to communicate complex political, religious, economic, artistic, medical, military, technological and cultural trends Brilliant and breathtakingly wide-ranging ... As Peckham shows in gripping and beautifully written detail, fear isn't just the stock in trade of wicked despots; in some circumstances it can be turned to positive effect. Could it, now, be that fear is our friend? Read Peckham and judge for yourself. Extraordinary. This exceptional and thought-provoking book sheds light on the intricate position fear occupies in the unavoidable realities of politics and our spiritual existence. We all know what fear is, but who amongst us have considered its history? Peckham is fear's astute historian-translator in this big, brave, honest, and learned book. He moves us back and forth across time and place, from fourteenth-century century plague to bombs in Afghanistan, in a profoundly human history of the politics of one emotion. It's gripping as well as uncomfortable reading, that shows us the stakes when fear and freedom are twinned Robert Peckham's deeply informed and lucidly staged anatomy of fear is a remarkable achievement. Peckham shapes a fundamentally transformative account of the sociology of fear - and of fear as a constitutive element of modern sociality itself. A groundbreaking study. Fascinating, compelling and erudite. I have written quite a lot about fear and the brain, but learned so much about fear itself from this book.