Emotional Politics of the Alternative Left

In the 1970s, a multifaceted alternative scene developed in West Germany. At the core of this leftist scene was a struggle for feelings in a capitalist world that seemed to be devoid of any emotions. Joachim C. Häberlen offers here a vivid account of these emotional politics. The book discusses critiques of rationality and celebrations of insanity as an alternative. It explores why capitalism made people feel afraid and modern cities made people feel lonely. Readers are taken to consciousness raising groups, nude swimming at alternative vacation camps, and into the squatted houses of the early 1980s. Häberlen draws on a kaleidoscope of different voices to explore how West Germans became more concerned with their selves, their feelings, and their bodies. By investigating how leftists tried to transform themselves through emotional practices, Häberlen gives us a fresh perspective on a fascinating aspect of West German history.

Joachim C. Häberlen is Assistant Professor of Modern Continental European History at the University of Warwick whose research focuses on protest movements and the history of emotions. He is the author of Vertrauen und Politik im Alltag: Die Arbeiterbewegung in Leipzig und Lyon im Moment der Krise, 1929–1933/38 (2013), numerous academic articles, and an essay on the politics of friendship between Germans and refugees (Wie aus Fremden Freunde werden). He edited The Politics of Authenticity: Countercultures and Radical Movements across the Iron Curtain 1968–1989 (2018).