Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries (Hardback)

A compelling study [that] celebrates the working class pioneers of female emancipation who have been overlooked. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.