FEAR

It s been said that after 9 11 the 2008 financial crash and the Covid 19 pandemic we re a more fearful society than ever before Yet fear and the panic it produces have long been driving forces perhaps the driving force of world history fear of God of famine war disease poverty and other people In Fear An Alternative History of the World Robert Peckham considers the impact of fear in history as both a coercive tool of power and as a catalyst for social change Beginning with the Black Death in the fourteenth century Peckham traces a shadow history of fear He takes us through the French Revolution and the social movements of the nineteenth century to modern market crashes Cold War paranoia and the AIDS pandemic into a digital culture increasingly marked by uniquely twenty first century fears What did fear mean to us in the past and how can a better understanding of it equip us to face the future As Peckham demonstrates fear can challenge as well as cement authority Some crises have destroyed societies others have been the making of them Through the stories of the people and the moments that changed history Fear An Alternative History of the World reveals how fear and panic made us who we are