Disgrace is the first truly global history of sexual violence. The book explores how sexual
violence varies widely across time and place from nineteenth-century peasant women in Ireland
who were abducted as a way of forcing marriage to date-raped high-school students in
twentieth-century America and from girls and women violated by Russian soldiers in 1945 to
Dalit women raped by men of higher castes today. It delves into the factors that facilitate
violence including institutions ideologies and practices but also gives voice to survivors and
activists drawing inspiration from their struggles. Ultimately Joanna Bourke intends to forge
a transnational feminism that will promote a more harmonious equal and rape- and violence-free
world.
