How do we keep from being afraid? The modern world is the theater of an irresistible rise of anxieties, from the smallest- what we eat, what we breathe- to the greatest- millennial announcements of the apocalypse and resurgence of the new devils. Yet from a historical perspective, we live in a safer world than ever before. Starting from this paradox, Pierre-Henri Tavoillot clearly poses the question of the great answers given by humanity to the problem of fear. What have been the spiritual and sometimes political devices that have helped to reassure man in his community, from the old responses, to modern and then contemporary responses? "Dare to know and take care" is the motto to which Pierre-Henri Tavoillot invites us, which will allow the democratic man to fight against fears without wanting to abolish them.