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.
