A major new introduction to women's political involvement and role in the liberal democratic world drawing examples from a wide range of countries to illustrate key common features and divergences. Anne Stevens not only assesses the extent of women's participation and representation in government, and in parliaments but also in grass roots politics. The central focus throughout is on the issue of whether and how gender makes a difference.

In the half century before Walter Scott's Waverley, dozens of popular novelists produced historical fictions for circulating libraries. This book examines eighty-five popular historical novels published between 1762 and 1813, looking at how the conventions of the genre developed through a process of imitation and experimentation.