Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Women

Helen Lewis argues that feminism’s success is down to complicated, contradictory, imperfect women who fought each other as well as fighting for equal rights. Too many of these pioneers have been whitewashed or forgotten in our modern search for feel-good, inspirational heroines. It’s time to reclaim the history of feminism as a history of difficult women.

The gripping, true, and untold history of the Italian anti-fascist resistance during World War II, told through the stories of four spectacularly courageous women fighters From underground soldiers to intrepid spies, Women of War unearths the hidden history of the brave women who risked their...

Iris Murdoch, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot and Elizabeth Anscombe were philosophy students at Oxford during the Second World War when most male undergraduates (and many tutors) were conscripted. Taught by refugee scholars, women and conscientious objectors, the four friends developed a philosophy that could respond to the war's darkest revelations.

June, 1877: the petite 29-year-old Annie Besant stands motionless before the 75-year-old Judge towering over her in the Palace of Westminster. Lord Chief Justice Cockburn is presiding over the scandalous 'trial of the century' where Annie Besant and her confidante Charles Bradlaugh have been charged with the unforgiveable crime of publishing and selling a guide to birth control. Charged with obscenity, she argued—controversially and outrageously, for the time—that it was a woman's right to be able to choose to have children.

A New Yorker Best Book of 2025 An NPR Book We Love 2025 A History Best Book of 2025 A Smithsonian Magazine Best History Book of 2025 A New York Post Best Book of 2025 A New York Times Editors' Choice CBS Sunday Morning Summer Book Report Pick New York Times “Books...

INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER! One of Amazon’s Best History Books of January Acclaimed journalist, podcaster, and true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson tells the true story of the scandalous murder investigation that became the inspiration for both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter...

A spirited, poignant history of the seven daughters of the great Empress Maria Theresia—among them, Queen Marie Antoinette of France—tracing their lives as they balanced dynastic duty with personal ambition in a time of revolutionary cataclysm “Others make war; you, happy Austria, marry...

Blackpool, November 1942. Wartime worries fail to dampen the glitz and glamour of the ballroom in the run-up to Christmas. After all, life is for living. Newlywed Pearl's bliss is cut short when her beloved Bernie is called up into the Army. Will dancing at the Tower Ballroom take the edge off her heartache or will it throw temptation her way? Unexpected news of an inheritance presents Joy with a different dilemma. Should she move to Scotland in line with her parents' final wishes or stay in Blackpool to dance with Tommy, the man she loves?

An entertaining and eye-opening biography of America's most memorable first daughter From the moment Teddy Roosevelt's outrageous and charming teenage daughter strode into the White House—carrying a snake and dangling a cigarette—the outspoken Alice began to put her imprint on the whole of...

In 16th-century Europe, two women came to hold all the power, against all the odds. They were Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici. One a Virgin Queen who ruled her kingdom alone, and the other a clandestine leader who used her children to shape the dynasties of Europe, much has been written about these iconic women. But nothing has been said of their complicated relationship: 30 years of friendship, competition and conflict that changed the face of Europe.

Edda Mussolini was Benito's favourite daughter: spoilt, venal, uneducated but clever, faithless but flamboyant, a brilliant diplomat, wild but brave and ultimately strong and loyal. She was her father's confidante during the 20 years of Fascist rule, acting as envoy to both Germany and Britain, and playing a part in steering Italy to join forces with Hitler. From her early 20s, she was effectively first lady of Italy. She married Galeazzo Ciano, who would become the youngest foreign secretary in Italian history.

Named a Most Anticipated Book by Bustle, Esquire, Nylon, and The Millions “Intimate, thoughtful, and accessible to anyone struggling with the persistent, maddening inequities of contemporary sex.” –Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad From Teen Vogue sex and...

A provocative new take on the women behind a perennially fascinating subject--Prohibition--by bestselling author and historian Hugh Ambrose. The passage of the 18th Amendment (banning the sale of alcohol) and the 19th (women's suffrage) in the same year is no coincidence. These two...

If you loved Hidden Figures or The Rise of the Rocket Girls, you'll love Claire Evans' breakthrough book on the women who brought you the internet--written out of history, until now. "This is a radically important, timely work," says Miranda July, filmmaker and author of The First Bad Man. The...

A riveting history of the American West told for the first time through the pioneering women who used the challenges of migration and settlement as opportunities to advocate for their rights, and transformed the country in the process Between 1840 and 1910, hundreds of thousands of men and women...

*A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Editor's Choice Pick* From an award-winning journalist covering gender and politics comes an inside look at the female candidates fighting back and winning elections in the crucial 2018 midterms. After November 8, 2016, first came the sadness; then came the rage...

ONE OF “12 NEW NONFICTION BOOKS YOU NEED TO READ IN 2025”—THE OBSERVER A “MUST-READ” BOOK OF SPRING 2025 – TOWN & COUNTRY ONE OF “25 BOOKS TO READ IN 2025”—TORONTO STAR From the New York Times bestselling author of Capote’s Women comes an astonishing account of the...

Recommended by Mary Beard as one of the BBC History Magazine's Books of the Year Classical stories about women who wield power, from the Amazons to Dido to Cleopatra A Penguin Classic There is no other anthology that brings together similar stories of ancient women in power. These women threaten...