When we look back at our lives, or at the trajectory of mankind itself, what do we think? Paradoxically, every generation believes they are solving old problems and making life in their time better, and yet for many of us a reappraisal makes us long for what we have left behind. We have to wonder: what is the point of this nostalgia and why does it have such a hold on us?
Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion is an attempt to dive deeply into this slippery feeling, to assess how we feel about it right now. Author Agnes Arnold-Forster sees nostalgia all around her – from the US campus demonstrations against the war in Gaza echoing the anti-Vietnam actions of the 1970s, to remakes of fondly remembered TV series such as Frasier and Sex and the City, to the trend for retro versions of 90s fashions, all big shoulders and wide trousers.
But nostalgia certainly ain’t what it used to be. The term “nostalgia” dates back more than 300 years, and was originally a medical term describing an illness that could, and did, kill people. In 1688, Swiss medic Dr Johannes Hofer coined the word, derived from the Greek or homecoming, and or pain. He built up a body of evidence for the existence of “a kind of pathological patriotic love, an intense and dangerous homesickness”. Symptoms ranged from continuing sadness, disturbed sleep, “stupidity of the mind” to diminished sight or hearing, fevers and a lack of interest in food or drink. If this sickness continued for too long, patients died.
