A Short History of Power

How societies create and sustain oppression, and how to resist it

Author: Dr Dr Jack Davy

Paperback

A prescient book that looks at how we have, over the centuries, inflicted oppression on others for our own advantage over history, right up to the present day.

A vital book that explores how abuses of power have been enabled for centuries - and the methods we can use to fight back.

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Summary

A prescient book that looks at how we have, over the centuries, inflicted oppression on others for our own advantage over history, right up to the present day.

A vital book that explores how abuses of power have been enabled for centuries - and the methods we can use to fight back.

Description

'You could not ask for a more eloquent guide than this book. Essential' Sathnam Sanghera

An eye-opening book about how societies are designed to support those in power, at the expense of those without it.

COLONIAL POWER

In the 1950s, over 10,000 Kenyans were killed by the British during the Mau Mau uprising against a government determined to install a sympathetic post-independence regime and continue to exploit the resources of its former colonies.

PATRIARCHAL POWER

After the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Islamic Republic systematically removed freedoms from women, relegating them to second-class citizens in the name of religious teachings.

EDUCATIONAL POWER

There have been fifty-seven prime ministers of the United Kingdom, of whom forty-three have been privately educated, creating a society built by and for the privileged.

These are just some of the stories through which Dr Jack Davy illustrates the key factors that allow societies to create and sustain oppressive systems. Some are historical. Others have played out right before our eyes over the last decade. All are rooted in the systems in which we all participate. Read this book, and take action.

'Sharp and insightful. Jack Davy makes complex ideas accessible in this powerful book about the roots of inequality' Caroline Dodds Pennock, author of On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe

'A deeply humane book with true hope in its message' Ray Mattinson, Blackwells

Critic Reviews

“I thought I had a pretty good sense of how colonialism shapes modern society, but Dr Davy has shown me that understanding these things is a lifetime's work. In the absence of time to read everything, you could not ask for a more eloquent guide than this book. Essential.”

Sathnam Sanghera
Sharp and insightful. Jack Davy makes complex ideas accessible in this powerful book about the roots of inequality Caroline Dodds Pennock, author of On Savage Shores

About the Author

Dr. Jack Davy has worked in the heritage of marginalised peoples for over a decade, focusing in particular on the cultural oppression of Native Americans. He has a PhD in anthropology, and has worked for the British Museum, Horniman Museum and the University of East Anglia. He is currently Head Curator at Morley College in London.