Society & Politics

Why the popular resonance of 'mansplaining' (despite the intense dislike of the term felt by many men)? It hits home for us because (read more)

Why the popular resonance of 'mansplaining' (despite the intense dislike of the term felt by many men)? It hits home for us because it points straight to what it feels like not to be taken seriously: a bit like when I get lectured on Roman history on Twitter. Britain's best-known classicist Mary Beard, is also a committed and vocal feminist. With wry wit, she revisits the gender agenda and shows how history has treated powerful women.

Her examples range from the classical world to the modern day, from Medusa and Athena to Theresa May and Hillary Clinton. Beard explores the cultural underpinnings of misogyny, considering the public voice of women, our cultural assumptions about women's relationship with power, and how powerful women resist being packaged into a male template. With personal reflections on her own experiences of the sexism and gendered aggression she has endured online, Mary asks: if women aren't perceived to be within the structures of power, isn't it power that we need to redefine?From the author of international bestseller SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.
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Before 1893 no woman anywhere in the world had the vote in a national election. A hundred years later almost all countries had enfranchised (read more)

Before 1893 no woman anywhere in the world had the vote in a national election. A hundred years later almost all countries had enfranchised women, and it was a sign of backwardness not to have done so. This is the story of how this momentous change came about.

The first genuinely global history of women and the vote, it takes the story of women in politics from the earliest times to the present day, revealing startling new connections across time and national boundaries - from Europe and North America to Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Muslim world post-9/11. A story of individuals as well as of wider movements, it includes the often dramatic life-stories of women's suffrage pioneers from across the world, painting vivid biographical portraits of everyone from Susan B. Anthony and the Pankhursts to hitherto lesser-known activists in China, Latin America, and Africa.
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Throughout the twentieth century and long before, hundreds of determined British women defied the social conventions of their day (read more)

Throughout the twentieth century and long before, hundreds of determined British women defied the social conventions of their day in order to seek adventure and influence on the world stage. Some became travellers and explorers; others business-owners or buyers; others still devoted their lives to worthy international causes, from anti-slavery and women's suffrage to the League of Nations and world peace. Yet until 1946, no British woman could officially represent her nation abroad.

It was only after decades of campaigning and the heroic labours performed by women during the Second World War that diplomatic careers were finally opened to both sexes. Women of the World tells this story of personal and professional struggle against the dramatic backdrop of war, super-power rivalry and global transformation over the last century and a half. From London to Washington, Geneva to Tehran, and in the deserts of Arabia, the souks of Damascus and the hospitals of Sarajevo, resolute women undaunted by intransigent officials and hostile foreign governments proved their worth. (hide)

From the international bestselling author of Gomorrah, this searing expose of dirty money and the drug trade reveals how they are (read more)

From the international bestselling author of Gomorrah, this searing expose of dirty money and the drug trade reveals how they are at the heart of our lives, our economy, and our world. "The most important book of the year ...Here it is, laid bare: cartel as corporation, corporation as cartel; cocaine as pure capitalism ...Saviano realises the brutal truth: that to understand narco-traffic is to understand the modern world ...it is revolutionary". (Ed Vulliamy, Observer).

"A dense, dazzling, dizzying narrative about the terrifying violence of the cocaine trade, but also the vast, unassailable reach of it". (Rose George, Independent). "A tremendously gripping work of reportage" (Ian Thomson, Evening Standard). "Italy's bravest investigative writer ...must-read nonfiction". (GQ) "Impassioned, remarkable". (Misha Glenny, Financial Times). "After reading Saviano, it becomes impossible to see Italy, and the global market, in the same way again".

Pub Date:07/07/2016 (hide)