<DIV><i>Fear</i> ? the word, itself, conjures the appropriate response. With a dark cacophony of associations like fright, dread, horror, panic, alarm, anxiety, and terror, fear is universally understood as one of the most basic and powerful of human emotions, obtaining a nearly palpable and overwhelming substance in today's world.<BR><BR>In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed historian and prize-winning author Joanna Bourke covers the landscape of fear over the past two hundred years: From the nineteenth century dread of being buried alive ? a subject dear to the heart of Edgar Allen Poe ? to the current worry over being able to die when one chooses; from the diagnoses of phobias and anxieties produced by psychotherapists and lovingly catalogued, to the role of popular culture and media in inciting panic and dread; from the horrors of the nuclear age to the fear of twenty-first century terrorism, <I>Fear</I> tells the story of anguish in modern times.<BR><BR>A blend of social and cultural history with psychology, philosophy, and popular science, this astonishing book ? exhaustively researched and beautifully written ? offers strikingly original insights into the mind and worldview of the ?long twentieth century” from one of the most brilliant scholars of our time.<BR></div>