Here For The History - Stiff Upper Lip: Do Brits Have Emotions?

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There’s a well known stereotype that Brits don’t show their emotions. George Gershwin even composed a song about the famous ‘Stiff Upper Lip’.

This week Alice Loxton and Ben Henderson delve into the history of emotions and ask where the British stiff upper lip came from.

We’ll hear how the French Revolution turned Brits against emotion, how the Victorians made repression a virtue, and why everything changed after World War II.

Key Sources
Ian Hislop’s Stiff Upper Lip: An Emotional History of Britain, BBC Two
Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears, Prof Thomas Dixon
History of Emotions Blog, Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions
Prof Julie-Marie Strange

Published on Thursday, 16th July 2026.

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