The book provides a synthesis of the development of the genre of national history writing in Europe, in particular it seeks to illuminate the relationship between history writing and the construction of national identities in modern Europe.

How are bodies and affects formed in liberal market societies? And, conversely, what roles do affects and bodies play in the genesis and stabilization of and changes to market societies? These are the questions examined by the authors in several insightful and theoretically ambitious case studies. The collection aims to present new approaches from the History of Emotions, Affect Studies, Actor-Network-Theory and other fields, putting them to the test in the analysis of capitalist societies. These investigations - by sociologists, ethnologists and historians - will tackle developments in the...