Society of Fear

Heinz Bude is one of the leading sociologists in Germany today. He is a fellow of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research and Professor of Macrosociology at the University of Kassel.

• PrefaceThanksFear as a principleLonging for a non-terminable relationshipUnease with one’s own typeWhen the winners take it allThe status panic of the middle classEveryday battles on the lower rungsThe fragile selfRule by nobodyThe power of emotionThe fear of othersGenerational lessonsBibliographyNotes

" 'Fear,' writes Heinz Bude, 'reveals the direction in which a society is moving.' Rather than analyzing the symptoms of angst today – proliferating in blogs, self-help literature, and anxiety disorders – Bude masterfully explores the existential, political, and generational experiences that create the conditions for a 'society of fear.'"John Borneman, Princeton University“Consider that this slim volume, newly translated for the English-speaking market, was originally published in German in 2014 when the seeds of current tumult were perceptible but the political fruits not yet fallen — and that in this Bude resembles the pioneering Freud: Civilisation was published in 1930 just as the world was about to undergo a period of havoc.”The Financial Times"Wisdom can be found in Heinz Bude’s Society of Fear. Bude has defied all stereotypes of German sociology professors and produced a direct, elegant, and succinct critique of modern, individualistic society, the anxiety it generates, and the populists who exploit it."Foreign Policy