American Guilt: a challenge for contemporary emotions history

Abstract

This article assesses the unexpected increase of references to guilt in American culture, from the mid-20th century onward. The increase came against a pattern of decline over the previous hundred years, and also runs counter to many interpretations of growing American individualism and self-indulgence. The article deals also with the increasing criticisms of guilt, as damaging and unpleasant, that became increasingly common from the 1920s onward. A focus on guilt associated with parenting brings these themes into clearer focus, helping to explain the rise in guilt references – with causes that are fairly clear in the area of parenting – but also the disconcerting combination with resentments about guilt as harmful and unfair. Several parental reactions, particularly by the 1990s, followed from the tensions over patterns of guilt.