Hate: The Uses of a Powerful Emotion

How hate is more powerful than love: A radical re-imaging of a revolutionary emotion. An international bestseller across Europe.

Who is allowed to hate? Hatred, this grating, corrosive feeling, is omnipresent, roaring from the streets or whispered in bourgeois homes. It thrives in parliamentary speeches, conspiracy theorists' fantasies and children's bedrooms - and certainly not in secret, even if many would like to see it restricted there.

German bestselling author Seyda Kurt frees hatred from its banishment and sets out on the trail of its potential for resistance. She is particularly interested in people as subjects of hatred in a capitalist, racist and patriarchal world. Who are these haters and what power relations do they base them selves on? Who is allowed to hate? Which feelings paralyse, and which ones guide us to a fairer, more caring society?

Ruthlessly, humorously and going beyond any self-righteous indignation, Seyda Kurt explores the possibility of a serviceable hatred that connects with people who feel a deep sense of discontent and helps us to find a collective way forward.

About the Author

Seyda Kurt born in Cologne in 1992, studied philosophy, Romance studies and cultural journalism in Cologne, Bordeaux and Berlin. As a freelance journalist and columnist, she writes for various print and online media in Germany, including ZEIT ONLINE and Deutschlandfunk Kultur. As an editor, she worked on the Spotify original podcast about the Hanau shootings (190220 - Ein Jahr nach Hanau), which won the prestigious Grimme Online Award in 2021. In her best selling book Radical Tenderness, she examined love in the forcefield of patriarchy, capitalism and racism.

What People Are Saying

"Absolutely worth reading for me, because the book definitely inspires reflection and rethinking." Sophie Eickholt,  SR2 Kulturradio

"Hate is a revolutionary book in the best sense of the word." Marlene Halser,  Berliner Zeitung,

"Kurt writes unsparingly, without moralizing, which makes you curious." Stephanie Metzger,  SWR2

"Refreshingly clear, often unsparing." Sylvie-Sophie Schindler,  Galore

"I have rarely held a book like this in my hand." Christian Rabhansl,  Deutschlandfunk Kultur Lesart

"After her second book, Kurt is likely to be remembered as one of the most interesting young authors in this country." Aurelie von Blazekovic,  Süddeutsche Zeitung

"An invitation worth reading to think productively about politics and feelings." Julia Schramm,  Der Freitag

"In the end, Kurt not only asks interesting new questions, but it also helps us all air our relationship to hate a little bit as well." Rebecca Link,  WDR 5 Bücher

"Seyda Kurt provides clever food for thought." arte Twist

"Kurt precisely analyzes the power relations that allow hatred to grow." Maicke Mackerodt,  RF Ö1 Kontext

"Clever and revolutionary." Kristina Remmert,  WR2 lesenswert

"In this international bestseller, Kurt argues for the productive side of this much-maligned emotion, and the way it can be used to fuel action, resistance, and perhaps even a new kind of care. Which is good, because these days I find I might need some help directing all these Bad Bad feelings." Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025

"Against liberal pieties that demand fangless passivity and perfect victimhood, Seyda Kurt's Hate is a welcome tonic. A generous and poetic invitation to marshall "strategic hate" for liberatory purposes. I'm delighted to see Kurt's work translated for anglophone readers, so we may all hate better together." Natasha Lennard, author of Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life

"Seyda Kurt's Hate: The Uses of a Powerful Emotion, is a brilliant meditation on the relationships between hate, domination, and resistance. Kurt shows how the concept of hate is deployed to stigmatize and discredit anti-colonial, anti-racist, and feminist resistance, and how liberal moral stances against hate operate to pacify and to justify state violence through appeals to democracy and rule of law. This book is a vital tool for demystifying hate, so that we might see its role in liberation struggles." Dean Spade, author of Love in a F*cked Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell, Together