The Women's History of the Modern World - by Rosalind Miles (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published as Rebel women: the renegades, viragos and heroines who changed the world - from the French Revolution to today in the United Kingdom by Virago.

Book Synopsis

The
internationally bestselling author of Who Cooked the Last Supper? presents a wickedly witty and very current
history of the extraordinary female rebels, reactionaries, and trailblazers
who left their mark on history from the French Revolution up to the present
day.

Now
is the time for a new women's history--for the famous, infamous, and unsung
women to get their due--from the Enlightenment to the #MeToo movement.
Recording the important milestones in the birth of the modern
feminist movement and the rise of women into greater social, economic, and
political power, Miles takes us through through a colorful pageant of
astonishing women, from heads of state like Empress Cixi, Eugenia Charles,
Indira Gandhi, Jacinda Ardern, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to political
rainmakers Kate Sheppard, Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Stout, Dorothy Height,
Shirley Chisholm, Winnie Mandela, STEM powerhouses Jocelyn Bell Burnell,
Rosalind Franklin, Sophia Kovalevskaya, Marie Curie, and Ada Lovelace, revolutionaries Olympe de Gouges, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Patyegarang, and writer/intellectuals
Mary Wollstonecraft, Simon de Beauvoir, Elaine Morgan, and Germaine Greer. Women
in the arts, women in sports, women in business, women in religion, women in
politics--this is a one-stop roundup of the tremendous progress women have made
in the modern era.
A testimony to how women have persisted--and excelled--this is a
smart and stylish popular history for all readers.

Review Quotes

"One of the best books on women's history. . . detailed, witty, balanced, and inexorable...Splendid!" - A.S Byatt
"Since Miles looks back in anger it is fortunate she also possesses a sense of humor....Her book has been written to alleviate a genuine injustice, the ignoring of women's roles in history." - Antonia Fraser
"Rosalind Miles has rescued from obscurity women of astonishing ability, courage, and determination. This is an exuberant book...an inspiration." - Washington Post
"Bent on setting the record straight, Miles offers a keen and passionate look at women's contributions to civilizations from hunter-gatherer societies to the present, shining a spotlight into neglected corners as well as on familiar figures: who knew, for example, that Florence Nightingale defied a military commander and, wielding a hammer, broke into a locked storeroom after he refused to give her medical supplies? Readers will delight in this rebel-rousing read." - Publishers Weekly
"With her sharp and satirical feel for language, Miles sets light to some of history's enduring images and watches them crackle." - New Society
"Novelist and historian Miles (coauthor, Warrior Women) spotlights "rebel women" from the past two centuries in this brisk and freewheeling history . . . an energetic and enthusiastic survey of feminist boundary pushing." - Publisher's Weekly
"Herstory with a dash of sarcasm and a wide global and chronological reach." - Kirkus