General non-fiction
We publish serious non-fiction social commentary and debate for a wide audience. These high quality books are written by academics, professionals and other experts in an accessible way bringing key issues of social, political and cultural significance to a wide readership. These books have an impact: advancing knowledge, raising awareness and encouraging social change.
This Separated Isle
Invisible Britain
This Separated Isle explores how concepts of ‘Britishness’ reveal an inclusive range of understandings about our national character. Featuring a diverse range of photographic portraits and narrative stories from across the UK, this landmark book examines the relationship between identity and nationhood, revealing the ties that bind us together.
Invisible Britain
Portraits of Hope and Resilience
A photographic ethnography book that features the stories and portraits of individuals across the UK who have been impacted by social issues such as austerity, Brexit, deindustrialisation, nationalism and cuts to public services.
Urgent Business
Five Myths Business Needs to Overcome to Save Itself and the Planet
Combining academic insight and inspiring real-world examples this book offers a new business model which argues that all companies should become responsible businesses, transforming the sustainability agenda into a more holistic and systemic approach.
In Whose Interest?
The Privatisation of Child Protection and Social Work
What is the social cost of privatising public services? And what effect has the failure of previous privatisations had? This book tells how social work services are now being out-sourced to private companies and how this trend threatens the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children and disabled adults.
Making modern mothers
An exciting and timely book documenting the transition to motherhood over generations and time.
The Class Ceiling
Why it Pays to be Privileged
This important book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Drawing on 200 interviews across four case studies - television, accountancy, architecture, and acting – it explores the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile.
Woke Capitalism
How Corporate Morality is Sabotaging Democracy
This book delves into the corporate takeover of public morality, or ‘woke capitalism’. Discussing the political causes that it has adopted, and the social causes that it has not, it argues that this extension of capitalism has negative implications for democracy’s future.
Law and Society in a Populist Age
Balancing Individual Rights and the Common Good
Amitai Etzioni argues for a new liberal communitarian approach as an effective response to populism. The book considers national security versus privacy, private sector responsibility, freedom of the press, campaign finance reform, regulatory law and the legal status of terrorists, offering a timely discussion of key issues.
Stinking Rich
The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire
How does the billionaire class get away with sequestering the world’s wealth while others languish in poverty and hunger? This incisive book examines myths that portray billionaires as a ‘force for good’ and concrete actions to support economic justice and democratic equality.
Lessons in Diplomacy
Politics, Power and Parties
Leigh Turner's witty globe-trotting adventure through one of the most intriguing careers a person can have offers astute reflections on Brexit, Russia’s war with Ukraine and the chaos of modern politics, shedding new light on the intricacies of modern statecraft, including what we all can learn from a good diplomat or ambassador.
Women, Peace and Welfare
A Suppressed History of Social Reform, 1880-1920
Between 1880 and 1920 many women researched the conditions of social and economic life in Western countries, driven by a vision of a society based on welfare and altruism. Ann Oakley uses the women’s stories to bring together the histories of social reform, social science, welfare and pacifism.
Radical Empathy
Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides
Renowned political scientist Terri Givens calls for ‘radical empathy’ in bridging racial divides to understand the origins of our biases, including internalized oppression. Deftly weaving together her own experiences with the political, she offers practical steps to call out racism and bring about radical social change.