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Women Who Made History

Our list of books detailing the amazing stories of women in history is growing, and we’re proud to be able to share their stories with the world.

Highlights include The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore – a dark but ultimately uplifting account of Elizabeth Packard’s incredible fight for freedom and human rights in the 19th century; The Woman Who Cracked the Anxiety Code by Judith Hoare – the true story of Claire Weekes, the little-known Australian mental-health pioneer who revolutionised how we see the defining problem of our era: anxiety; and An Unconventional Wife – Mary Hoban’s award-winning biography of Julia Sorell — an Australian woman who refused to bend to the expectations of her husband and her time.

Browse below to discover the lives of six incredible women.

The Woman They Could Not Silence

From the internationally bestselling author of The Radium Girls comes a dark but ultimately uplifting tale of a woman whose incredible journey still resonates today.

Elizabeth Packard was an ordinary Victorian housewife and mother of six. That was, until the first Woman’s Rights Convention was held in 1848, inspiring Elizabeth and many other women to dream of greater freedoms. She began voicing her opinions on politics and religion — opinions that her husband did not share. Incensed and deeply threatened by her growing independence, he had her declared 'slightly insane' and committed to an…

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The Woman Who Cracked the Anxiety Code

The true story of the little-known mental-health pioneer who revolutionised how we see the defining problem of our era: anxiety.

Panic, depression, sorrow, guilt, disgrace, obsession, sleeplessness, low confidence, loneliness, agoraphobia … Dr Claire Weekes knew how to treat them, but was dismissed as underqualified and overly populist by the psychiatric establishment. In a radical move, she had gone directly to the people. Her international bestseller Self Help for Your Nerves, first published in 1962 and still in print, helped tens of millions of people to overcome all of these, and continues to do…

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An Unconventional Wife

The page-turning biography of an Australian woman who refused to bend to the expectations of her husband and her time.

Julia Sorell was an original. A colonial belle from Tasmania, vivacious and warm-hearted, Julia’s marriage to Tom Arnold in 1850 propelled her into one of the most renowned families in England and into a circle that included Lewis Carroll and George Eliot. Her eldest daughter became a bestselling novelist, while her grandchildren included the writer Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, and the evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley.

With these family connections, Julia is a presence…

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The definitive account of an icon who shaped gender equality for all women.

In this comprehensive, revelatory biography — fifteen years of interviews and research in the making — historian Jane Sherron De Hart explores the central experiences that crucially shaped Ginsburg’s passion for justice, her advocacy for gender equality, and her meticulous jurisprudence. At the heart of her story and abiding beliefs was her Jewish background, specifically the concept of tikkun olam, the Hebrew injunction to ‘repair the world’, with its profound meaning for a young girl who grew up during the Holocaust…

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The Walls Came Tumbling Down

In this gripping memoir, originally published in 1957, the Dutch author, codename ‘Zip’, recounts her extraordinary journey.

A young fighter for the resistance during World War II, Zip is captured and held prisoner as part of the ‘Night and Fog’ unit, political prisoners who wait out the war in a crowded, secret cell. During their long days and nights, each creates a secret embroidery telling the story of their war, including when they are moved from place to place, writing each other’s names in morse code out of contraband black thread. Upon liberation, Zip must find her way back to Holland…

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Madame Fourcade’s Secret War

The little-known true story of the woman who headed the largest spy network in Vichy France during World War II.

In 1941, a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of Alliance, a vast Resistance organisation — the only woman to hold such a role. Brave, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her country’s conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job.

No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligence as Alliance — and as a result,…

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The Woman They Could Not Silence

Kate Moore

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The Woman Who Cracked the Anxiety Code

Judith Hoare

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An Unconventional Wife

Mary Hoban

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Jane Sherron De Hart

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The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Henriette Roosenburg

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Madame Fourcade’s Secret War

Lynne Olson

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