Affective History is a method I developed over many years. It denotes the tracing of the embodied relations and affects which allow us to understand a path to the present, not as disciplining or discursive practices but the tiny affects through which the present is formed. Not so much intergenerational transmission as deeply felt histories that can be gleaned from listening and systematic engagement with entangled narratives.

I have added to this method in many research projects, but for the present paper I consider aspects of class differences in the present conjuncture by tracing the affective histories of participants in a longitudinal study of British women divided by class, first seen as 4 year olds born in 1972/3 and most recently as 52/3 year old women interviewed in 2025. I am asking how we might utilise affective history to understand the historical production of the felt affects that are significant in the production of the deeply divided present. Using case studies, I consider aspects of family and community complexities through which class divides morph through the generations In relation of changing politics and policies in which patterns of intergenerational inequality and inherited wealth resist most liberal and neoliberal attempts to erode class differences.