Book Review: The Break-up of Greater Britain by Christian D. Pedersen and Stuart Ward (eds)

two women, depicted as representative of the supposed irrationality and immaturity of radical though non-violent women in the New Left movement. The notion of feminine irrationality followed other advocates of radical change, particularly second-wave feminist movements that started in 1970. Many feminists asserted that the sexism of the New Left drove them from ‘Left to lib’ (p. 162). While this was the motivation cited by many individuals – as it was in second-wave feminism throughout the world – Schieder asks readers to deconstruct this idea. We should shift our historiographical view lest we erase the role of women in the New Left. Women were oppressed by the glorification of masculinity but were not exclusively victims. Schieder’s book reclaims their voices and their role in a critical era of Japanese history.