Love: Brief Books about Big Ideas

In Love, researcher Anne Marie Pahuus explores the fascinating dimensions of this complicated and alluring feeling. Defining love as a mixture of warm emotions fueled by our wish to be with another person, Pahuus illustrates how love frames and influences our eventful lives, plans, and goals. But we haven't always viewed love in the romantic way that we see it now—the idea of love has changed and evolved throughout history, from Plato to Kierkegaard and Milan Kundera. Love determines our experience of happiness, but it also defines our responsibilities. Pahuus asks provocative questions: How do our attitudes toward love reinforce or subvert traditional ideas about gender, sexuality, and partnership? And how do we experience and value different forms of love, such as romantic, familial, or universal? Tackling these essential questions with humor and candor, Love will help you reframe your relationship with yourself, others, and the world.

In Reflections, a series copublished with Denmark's Aarhus University Press, scholars deliver 60-page reflections on key concepts. These books present unique insights on a wide range of topics that entertain and enlighten readers with exciting discoveries and new perspectives.