Nostalgia : A History of a Dangerous Emotion

by Arnold-Forster, Agnes

General & world history

Published 20/03/2025 by PAN MACMILLAN (Picador) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 272 pages

'Absorbing' - The Guardian'Illuminating' - Vogue'Fascinating' - Pandora SykesIn Nostalgia, historian Agnes Arnold-Forster blends neuroscience and psychology with the history of medicine and emotions to explore the evolution of nostalgia from seventeenth-century Switzerland (when it was held to be an illness that could, quite literally, kill you) to the present day (when it is co-opted by advertising agencies and politicians alike to sell us goods and policies).

It is a fascinating, compelling story of a social and political emotion, vulnerable to misuse, and one that reflects the anxieties of the age. It is also a clear-eyed analysis of what we are doing now, how we feel about it and what we might want to change about the world we live in.

‘Beautifully compact, wide-ranging and enjoyable’ - TLS