[2] To illustrate her points, Ahmed analyses public texts and the figurative language that they employ to name or perform emotion.

[2] Ahmed's book comments on three political events and ideas: the reconciliation of Australian Aboriginal children to their families, the public's response to international terrorism, and asylum and immigration in the United Kingdom.

[3] The book consists of eight chapters, all of which are centered around the relationship between political beliefs, emotions and identity; it discusses the consequences of the interactions between these three factors.

Greg Noble, a professor at the University of Western Sydney, describes Ahmed's book as containing an analysis that has moved on from traditions in psychology and sociology in productive ways.

They commend her ability to depict the relationship between bodies, language, and emotion while also analysing the intersections of gender, race, class, sexuality, and nation through a variety of histories.

Additionally, they use Ahmed's idea of affective economics, which states that emotions can be used as an economy; they become attached to material objects that join some people together while separating others.