In Her Own Words
On sale
1st April 2027
Price: £25
With a foreword by Kate Mosse
A century of British women’s everyday experiences, drawn from the Mass Observations Archive, and published for its 90th anniversary
The Mass Observation Archive is Britain’s richest historical collection of everyday life and May 2027 will mark its 90th anniversary. Drawing from this remarkable treasure trove, In Her Own Words will uncover and explore the daily reality of British women’s lives over the course of the last century.
Women have always been central to this remarkable archive of first-hand testimony. But no book has looked at their range of contribution in its own right, and across these decades. For many women contributors, MO offered a unique outlet for their intimate thoughts, feelings, and opinions, at a time when only a minority of women had a public voice – and then generally only in a circumscribed way – or one put on the record.
Historians Hester Barron and Fiona Courage want to unlock the voices they have encountered in the Archive in the course of their own work there. These include those of women born in the 1860s who lived most their lives without the vote, to those who lived through World War Two and the emergence of the new welfare state, to today’s Observers who discuss the effect of smartphones and the rise of AI.
A century of British women’s everyday experiences, drawn from the Mass Observations Archive, and published for its 90th anniversary
The Mass Observation Archive is Britain’s richest historical collection of everyday life and May 2027 will mark its 90th anniversary. Drawing from this remarkable treasure trove, In Her Own Words will uncover and explore the daily reality of British women’s lives over the course of the last century.
Women have always been central to this remarkable archive of first-hand testimony. But no book has looked at their range of contribution in its own right, and across these decades. For many women contributors, MO offered a unique outlet for their intimate thoughts, feelings, and opinions, at a time when only a minority of women had a public voice – and then generally only in a circumscribed way – or one put on the record.
Historians Hester Barron and Fiona Courage want to unlock the voices they have encountered in the Archive in the course of their own work there. These include those of women born in the 1860s who lived most their lives without the vote, to those who lived through World War Two and the emergence of the new welfare state, to today’s Observers who discuss the effect of smartphones and the rise of AI.