This work includes 1000 entries covering the spectrum of defining women in the contemporary world.

The Edwardian period experienced a particularly vibrant periodical culture, with phenomenal growth in the numbers of titles published that were either aimed specifically at women, or else saw women as a key section of their readership or contributor group. It was an era of political ferment in which a number of 'progressive' traditions were formulated, shaped or abandoned, including socialism, feminism, modernism, empire politics, trade unionism and welfarism. Organized around some of the central themes of political thought and utopian thinking, this impressive collection gathers together classic articles from key periodicals. The set presents a comprehensive sourcebook of readings on Edwardian/Progressive era feminist thought, exploring the intervention of the radical public intellectuals working in these traditions in North America and the UK from 1900-1918.

Using a collection of over one thousand popular songs from the war years, as well as around 150 soldiers’ songs, John Mullen provides a fascinating insight into the world of popular entertainment during the First World War. Mullen considers the position of songs of this time within the history of popular music, and the needs, tastes and experiences of working-class audiences who loved this music. To do this, he dispels some of the nostalgic, rose-tinted myths about music hall. At a time when recording companies and record sales were marginal, the book shows the centrality of the live show and of the sale of sheet music to the economy of the entertainment industry. Mullen assesses the popularity and significance of the different genres of musical entertainment which were common in the war years and the previous decades, including music hall, revue, pantomime, musical comedy, blackface minstrelsy, army entertainment and amateur entertainment in prisoner of war camps. He also considers non-commercial songs, such as hymns, folk songs and soldiers’ songs and weaves them into a subtle and nuanced approach to the nature of popular song, the ways in which audiences related to the music and the effects of the competing pressures of commerce, propaganda, patriotism, social attitudes and the progress of the war.

In December of 2012 in Delhi, India a woman was gang raped, tortured, and inflicted with such bodily violence that she died as a result of the injuries. The case caused massive public protests in Delhi and throughout the Indian subcontinent. These large scale public mobilizations lead to attempts to change national laws pertaining to sexual violence. One year after this case, The Supreme Court of India made the contentious decision to uphold Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Section 377, instituted by British colonizers dates back to 1860 and criminalizes sexual activities deemed to be “unnatural,” namely queer sex and queer people. In December of 2013, massive protests also occurred throughout India regarding this decision. Both these cases received worldwide media attention and lead to public demonstrations and debates regarding sexual politics throughout Asia and globally. There was a resilient refrain heard at many of the political protests that took place: A ̄za ̄di ̄. A ̄za ̄di is loosely translated into freedom. Drawing on interviews done in the Indian subcontinent, this book suggests that while colonial violence haunts postcolonial sexualities, anti-colonial resistance also remains, echoing in the streets like the chorus of an old song ~ A ̄za ̄di ̄.

An audacious revision to the history of modernity, Mineral Rites shows how fossil fuels operate at the level of infrapolitics and how they permeate life as second nature.

First published in 1982, this collection was the result of an ambitious and wide-ranging, inter-disciplinary research programme conducted by the International Labour Office (ILO) on the relationship between women’s roles and demographic change, with a view to influencing contemporary government and non-government policy and future research in the field. The ILO held an informal gathering of leading researchers in the fields of economics, anthropology, sociology and demography and this volume represents a unique and practically-orientated collection, offering valuable insights into contemporary perspectives on women’s studies and population dynamics.

Global Shaping and its Alternatives offers a unique series of reflections on the connections between market capitalism, the politics of alternatives, and the cultural elaboration of social change. It argues that there is a need for an alternative explanatory framework on globalization - one that rejects fatalism and highlights the dynamic roles of states, NGOs, local fractions of capital, democrative movements and gendered social relations. Without understanding how global shaping is taking place and how it affects human life across the globe, there can be no transformational possibility for humanizing our conditions of existence.