Feelings in History, Ancient and Modern.

CIP, Notes, Bibliography, Index

The reason for people's actions in the past, either as they appear in their own writings or as some later historian explains them, may be quite rational or may be more or less irrational.  MacMullen's argues for the primacy of the latter.  We should read the record as much with our hearts as with our heads. His argument challenges the style of explanation most in favor in the last half-century and more, a style which he finds in such a model work as Ronald Syme's Roman Revolution, or in the school of the French Annales, or in some of the most honored recent interpreters of the Abolitionist movement.  His discussion offers illustrations from both the historical sources and modern historians, with a chapter of comment drawn from modern psychology.

Howard Zinn says, "I am enormously impressed with what [MacMullen] has done: formidable research and
               fresh thinking on a surprisingly unexplored issue in historiography."

Peter Gay adds, "I find it fascinating and, as far as I can tell, quite correct and necessary."