Eloquent Blood: A Historical Microsociology of Blushing

Abstract

Microsociology has been criticised for universalising ‘the’ interaction order as it occurs among the North American middle classes. A way of addressing this issue lies in historicising interaction: showing how each component of the interaction order has been historically moulded. The present article illustrates this argument with the case of blushing, from the late 18th century through to the early 21st century, in the USA, Australia and France. The examination of newspaper articles, novels, publications in medicine, psychology and criminology, and other sources, makes it possible to retrace the shifting meanings and practices of blushing over time. Several processes have been identified, such as the racialisation of blushing at the end of the 18th century, its progressive masculinisation and medicalisation from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century and later its psychologisation and re-figuration in digital technologies. The conclusion calls for a historical sociology of the interaction order, or historical microsociology.