STUART WALTON

I love Waltons work for its deftness in combining high culture with demotic allusions. Michael Douglas, the Simpsons and Dolly Parton jostle Schopenhauer, Sophocles and Adorno in his pages. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The TimesCharles Darwin believed that the emotions of all human beings are as innate and as regular as our bone structure.Using Darwins survey of emotions as a starting point, Stuart Waltons masterly study examines the meaning of each of our core emotions - fear, anger, disgust, sadness, jealousy, contempt, shame, embarrassment, surprise, and happiness - and how they have influenced both cultural and social history. Thus primitive fear served as the engine of religious belief, while a desire for happiness led to humankinds first musings on achieving a perfect utopia. Ranging from the classi to recent pop culture, A Natural History of Human Emotions is an idiosyncratic examination of human feelings - and the way in which we display them. It challenges the notion that our emotional reactions are pretty much constant, unchanged over centuries and instead looks at how emotional responses have changed throughout history - and looks at what we might expect in the future.A boldly independent book. Walton strives for originality in both chapter and verseA carnival of episodes and cultural examplesWalton is a writer, which is more than can be said of most authors. Marek Kohn, IndependentHistorians, anthropologists and philosophers have long investigated the gamut of human emotions; here their conjectures and influences coalesceDrawing on a spectrum of rich referencesWalton sheds light on how we have arrived at an age when Sir Thomas Mores utopia comes in pill form.Library JournalWaltons book raises fascinating questions; it is a timely and thought-provoking work and demonstrates an intellectual agility that, dare I say it, even Plato would admire. Lesley McDowell, Sunday HeraldA fresh and entertaining survey.Kirkus Reviews

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"Like any good cocktail, this book brings together tasty ingredients in a delicious mix."Boston HeraldIntoxicology is an addictive investigation into the history and culture of Narcotica - from the everyday use of alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco to the illicit realm of opiates, amphetamines, and hallucinogens. The book is a witty and provocative look at why intoxication has always been a part of the human experience - from our earliest Stone Age rituals to the practices of the ancient Greeks and Romans, right on up through the Victorian era and ending with a flourish in modern times - and why the use of mind-altering substances is, and will continue to be, an essential part, however transgressive, of civilization."An insightful overview of humanitys historical and cultural attachment to various intoxicantsit deserves a prominent place in the emerging discussion reshaping understanding and policies regarding intoxication and the use of drugs and alcohol."Kirkus Reviews (starred)"Walton is particularly, and convincingly, engrossing, an elegant and forceful stylist."Guardian"Hilariously well-versedWaltons wit is deliciously dry."Seattle Weekly"A fluent plea for legalisation, by the only wine writer ever to admit that one of the best things about wine is the fact that it gets you pissed."Class"Irvine Welsh and Stuart Walton have done more than most writers to change our attitudes to drug use."Independent"It is the most refreshing book ever published on the subjectbeautifully written."Big Issue"Reading Stuart Waltons prose is a bit like going on some kind of trip. His erudition is dizzying."Mail on Sunday"True to its theme, Waltons compelling and trenchant polemic is apt to induce a welter of sensations."Evening Standard

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Alcohol, café, tabaco, entre las permitidas; cannabis, cocaína, éxtasis, entre las prohibidas: es difícil imaginar sustancias más ubicuas, y más ligadas al carácter de las culturas. Sin embargo, como señala Stuart Walton, para quien el consumo de intoxicantes es un rasgo de nuestra herencia biologica y, por tanto, un derecho humano inalienable, el estudio de la intoxicacion como fenomeno cultural es aun una disciplina incipiente. Este libro lucido y audaz, que no contemporiza ni con el lado luminoso de las drogas ni mucho menos con su lado oscuro, es una invitacion a llenar lagunas y a conocer que son y como actuan esas sustancias, como las ven quienes las consumen y quienes no, y en que momento y de que manera el cuarto impulso que nos hace buscarlas ha ido quedando historicamente bajo la tutela de la religion, la moral, el arte, la medicina, y, finalmente, la ley.

En este original y vibrante libro, Stuart Walton afronta los enormes cambios que se han producido en los últimos doscientos cincuenta años en las normas no escritas que indican qué puede expresarse en publico. Nuestra vida privada se ha beneficiado de una mayor honestidad emocional y elocuencia, aunque segun Walton aun queda mucho por avanzar, mientras que algunas emociones, como la ira, parecen dominar mas que nunca el comportamiento en publico. En Humanidad, Walton examina la historia de cada una de las emociones basicas: miedo, ira, asco, tristeza, celos, desprecio, verguenza, bochorno, sorpresa y felicidad. Para el autor, el amor y el odio (solo separados, como se sabe, por una fina linea) son sentimientos fundamentales que impregnan todas las emociones. Y demuestra que sin estas emociones no habria una historia de la humanidad. Con gran originalidad, Walton combina historia, filosofia y las ultimas novedades cientificas para crear un relato intenso y prodigo en detalles acerca de como las emociones han moldeado nuestro pasado.