The story of how we learned to smile. A unique and untold story about a facial expression at the heart of modern western civilization. It is a joy to read ... The book is innovative and interdisciplinary in the extreme, combing social, cultural, economic, political and medical history in such a way as to make connections appear entirely natural, and bringing such traditional fields together with the new methodologies of the history of the emotions. It is, in short, an inspiring work by a master of the field.