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Uncontrollable Women

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Uncontrollable Women by Nan Sloane, read by Harriet Dunlop

"Compelling." The Guardian
"An insightful and inspiring history." BBC History Magazine
"A tantalising revelatory book." The House
"Brisk and illuminating." Times Literary Supplement
"A damn good read." Morning Star
"Wonderful." The Chartist

Uncontrollable Women is a history of radical, reformist and revolutionary women between the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832. Very few of them are well-known today; some were unknown even in their own day. All of them contributed something to the world we now inhabit.
At a time when women were supposed to leave politics to men they spoke, wrote, marched, organised, asked questions, challenged power structures, sometimes went to prison and even died. History has not usually been kind to them, and they have frequently been pushed into asides or footnotes, dismissed as secondary, or spoken over, for, or through by men and sometimes other women. In this book, they take centre stage in both their own stories and those of others, and in doing so bring different voices to the more familiar accounts of the period. These women and many others played a part in developing political ideas and freedoms as we know them today, and some fought battles which still remain to be won or raised questions that are still unresolved. These are their stories.

Critics Review

A compelling study [that] celebrates the working class pioneers of female emancipation who have been overlooked.
The Guardian
An epic history of revolutionary, reforming, protesting actions by women spanning nearly half a century, vividly written by Nan Sloane. From wide and deep archive research, the author brings together for the first time facinating and extraordinary stories of women from both educated middle-class and humble working-class backgrounds, many of them unknown… Uncontrollable Women bristles with brave females: writing, protesting, marching, shouting, pushing and shoving, never keeping quiet and never giving up.
BBC History Magazine
Many of those brave women who risked their lives for our emancipation are largely forgotten now. Nan Sloane’s powerful book puts their remarkable stories centre stage. It is a tantalising revelatory book which gives voice to a procession of brave and fearless women who stood up for the principles of free speech, political rights and voting reform – risking their lives and their liberty in the process… Nan Sloane’s book at last gives these women a voice and recovers just some of their history.
The House
Nan Sloane points out in this brisk and illuminating study of political activism between 1789 and the passing of the Act, no vote did not mean no voice.
Times Literary Supplement
Some books sit neatly in the reference section, others are picked up and read intermittently — those which are found one day by the armchair and another, on the bedside table. This one deserves to be kept close at hand, not only because it’s a damn good read, but because it’s a reminder of how strong women can be rendered invisible and silent, unless we shine a spotlight and amplify their voices.
Morning Star
Wonderful … Nan Sloane’s Uncontrollable Women [is] a collection of insightful essays about female change-makers upon whose shoulders we stand today … We owe a debt of gratitude to Nan for her painstaking work putting this new book together and shining a spotlight on a group of women who have been largely ignored by the history books … The female ‘Radicals, Reformers & Revolutionaries’ who leap off the pages are women whose lives lay buried in disparate archives overshadowed by the loud men around them including many radical men whose cause they frequently espoused.
The Chartist
Uncontrollable Women brilliantly tells the history of women who fought for rights and against repression during the radical years in Britain of 1789-1832 … We owe all the uncontrollable women an enormous debt, first of all by not taking their achievements for granted, but most importantly, by continuing the fight for women’s rights.
Counterfire
Powerful and clear… Uncontrollable Women is a fine piece of history, the kind left out of the usual mainstream narrative. It widens our lens to look beyond the men involved in a wide popular movement, allowing us to see more deeply into the lives of everyday people who mattered, many of whom, not surprisingly, were women.
New York Journal of Books
Expands and diversifies the suffragette story… We will look back on Uncontrollable Women to inform historical teaching hereafter, and it will be welcomed into political literature as a map of the path taken to get to where Britain is today.
Buzz Magazine
This book brings to life the legacy left by the radical women missing from history and restores them to their rightful place... Nan has written a powerful, illuminating book that will educate and inspire. But most importantly, she has introduced us to these hidden feminist figures from 200 years ago. We stand on their shoulders and it is only right that we honour them.
Ayesha Hazarika, broadcaster and journalist, from the foreword
Uncontrollable Women gives long overdue attention to an often overlooked period in women’s history beyond the immediacy of Mary Wollstonecraft, the author rights that wrong. The removal of the requirement for women to be considered feminist in the modern sense also allows access to women whose achievements are often overlooked.
Jacqui Turner, Associate Professor of Modern British History, University of Reading, UK

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