Politics of Feeling in Brexit Britain

Jonathan Moss is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Sussex Emily Robinson is Reader in British Studies at the University of SussexJake Watts is an independent scholar

'Brexit was too often presented as a battle between "passionate leavers" and "rational remainers", but the Politics of feeling in Brexit Britain demonstrates through the real-time testimony of the Mass Observation Project that it was more complicated than that. Emotion is nothing new in politics, but this is a book that should make journalists, campaigners, politicians and pundits alike think again about how easy stereotypes shape collective political decision-making.'Peter Foster, author of What Went Wrong with Brexit'The politics of feeling in Brexit Britain is a ground-breaking study of the work that feeling did – and was held to do – in the referendum of 2016. Using accounts from the Mass Observation Archive, it tells the story of Brexit from the ground up. Anyone who wants to understand Britain today should read this brilliantly insightful book.' Claire Langhamer, Director, Institute of Historical Research'With impressive clarity, this book invites us to bring emotional literacy to political analysis. A very important contribution to our understanding of Brexit.'Stephen Coleman, author of How People Talk about Politics'This book demonstrates the value of engaging with the direct voices of ordinary citizens. It advances our understanding of how both feelings and reason, often combined in nuanced ways, played influential roles in the way people responded to the politics of Brexit.'Professor Gerry Stoker, Chair of Governance, University of Southampton 'This is not only a brilliant and dispassionate account of the role of feelings in Brexit. It is a reminder to political science of the importance of emotion in understanding and explaining the causes, consequences and meaning of major political developments.'Tim Oliver, author of Understanding Brexit'Roberts deserves huge credit for excavating such nuances from the mud heaped on them by Chartism’s enemies, and enriching our understanding of the words and deeds of earlier radicals. He makes a persuasive case that ‘popular radicalism often failed because it did not succeed in getting the right balance between the ascetic and the sentimental; or, in other words, displaying the right sort of feeling in the correct context’ (p. 237), allowing the propertied classes to immure themselves in their ethical shelters, shutting out the voices of those clamouring for change with a clear conscience. In so doing, Democratic Passions demonstrates that paying attention to emotions can transform our understanding not just of the what, but also the why of the history of political culture.'Simon J. Morgan, Cultural and Social History (The Journal of the Social History Society)

• Introduction: using an ‘archive of feeling’ to understand Brexit BritainPart I: Beyond ‘heads vs hearts’: personal feelings in political life1 Voting decisions2 Judgements and stereotypesPart II: Stories of excessive emotions: political feelings in personal life3 Moods4 RelationshipsConclusionIndex