A Brief History of Love

I feel like I found this less interesting as a married person, but it’s still unique in a historical and philosophical way. I think this would be great for single people who are struggling to read!

A Brief History of Love’s title instantly grabbed my attention. I have to admit I went into it as a total romantic expecting to read about long lasting love. Instead, this book takes a scientific approach to the concept of love. It takes the science of genes and hormones to explain how we fall in love and how we maintain romantic relationships, especially after having children. I will admit, A Brief History of Love does make love seem finite and rare. It is important to remember the fact that while this book focuses on the science behind love, it deals less with the free will we have as human beings to choose who we love and the effort we put into maintaining relationships. If you want to consider love from a scientific perspective, this means coming to terms with the false idea of a one true love. This book will give you all the ammunition you need to never settle down and avoid choosing one person to love and rely on, if that is something you desire. On the other hand, Yakir does also give advice on how to make love long lasting.

While I was hoping for something more heartfelt and romantic, this book does paint a very interesting picture of the history of love. It talks about the science of love, sex, gender norms, and more. This book is interesting and talks about things in a very real and informative way. Like I said, if you are a romantic and you expect to hear about long lasting and committed relationships, this information argues how rare and uncommon these relationships can be. The author argues that knowing the science behind love can allow us to more accurately understand our relationships.