This colour illustrated e-book takes readers from the origins of life on earth to neoliberalism in 140 pages. On the way, we explore (from a critical and feminist perspective):
- The evolution of land animals and early humans
- matriarchal cultures around the world
- Gerda Lerner's Creation of Patriarchy
- Old Europe, through the eyes of feminist archaeologist Marija Gimbutas
- The development of philosophical 'dualism' and patriarchal religion
- The Middle Ages, witchcraze, and the Arabic scientific innovations that fuelled the European Renaissance
- The Protestant Reformation and the origins of liberalism
- The enclosure movement, slave trade, colonisation, industrial revolution and the emergence of factories
- The world war period
- Major revolutionary and nationalist movements that took place around the world throughout the twentieth century, from India to Palestine, Cuba, Russia, China, South America, the United States, Iran, Egypt and the Pacific
- The spread of neoliberalism
The Brief Complete Herstory encourages readers to take a "long view" of history, and see the patterns that emerge. But we don't only have to learn from the horrible stuff. We also meet and learn from women like:
- Enheduanna, the world's first named author
- Sappho
- Boudicca, Celtic queen and priestess who led an uprising against Rome
- Medieval mystics and Beguines
- Harriet Tubman, American slavery abolitionist
- Sojourner Truth, slavery abolitionist and feminist
- Abigail Adams, wife and closest advisor of "founding father" John Adams
- Matilda Joslyn Gage, nineteenth century radical feminist
- Buffalo Calf Road Woman, who fought the United States army on horseback
- Begum Rokeya, Bengali feminist and author of Sultana’s Dream
- Emma Goldman, legendary feminist anarchist
- Emmeline Pankhurst, militant suffragist
- Rosa Luxemburg, militant socialist
- Virginia Woolf, author
- Malalai of Maiwand, who rallied Pashtun fighters against the British
- Yaa Asantewaa, Ashanti queen
- Te Puea Herangi, Māori leader
We also learn from a range of feminist historians and authors. My bibliography is several pages long (and worth looking over extensively!) so I can't summarise it here, but the authors listed are well introduced in The Brief Complete Herstory and they include: Monica Sjöö (The Great Cosmic Mother), Marilyn French (A History of Women in the World), Gerda Lerner (The Creation of Patriarchy and The Creation of Feminist Consciousness), Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States), Dorothy Roberts (Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty), Rebecca Hall (The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts), Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine), Yayori Matsui (Women in the New Asia), Shoshana Zuboff (The Age of Surveillance Capitalism).
