Love as Passion

In this important book Niklas Luhmann - one of the leading socialthinkers of the late 20th century - analyses the emergence of'love' as the basis of personal relationships in modernsocieties. He argues that, while family systems remained intact inthe transition from traditional to modern societies, a semanticsfor love developed to accommodate extra-marital relationships; thissemantics was then transferred back into marriage and eventuallytransformed marriage itself. Drawing on a diverse range ofhistorical and literary sources, Luhmann retraces the emergence andevolution of the special semantics of passionate love that has cometo form the basis of modern forms of intimacy and personalrelationships. This classic book by Luhmann has been widely recognized as awork of major importance. It is an outstanding contribution tosocial theory and it provides an original and illuminatingperspective on the nature of modern marriage and sexuality.