My new book is coming out today!

A Woman's World - another beauty from our bestselling "The Colour of Time" series

In 2017-18, when we were working our first book together, The Colour of Time, we found ourselves repeating what would, over the months, become a familiar lament. 

That book, like this one, was a world history told through digitally colourised photographs from the ‘black-and-white’ era – roughly speaking, 1850-1960. 

Then, as now, the historical parameters we set ourselves were broad: we wanted our story to range far and wide, mingling the famous with the unfamiliar and the everyday with the extraordinary, using colourised photography, based on thorough historical research, to tell a big story about a changing world. Yet as we worked, we kept coming back to a single observation. 

There aren’t enough women in here.

That’s not to say there were none. It would have been an old-fashioned history indeed which told the story of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries without any reference to women’s contribution to the world. And we felt we did what we could to bend the arc of our storytelling towards inclusion and representation. We were proud of The Colour of Time, and remain so today. 

Yet at times during the production of that book – and again during our second, The World Aflame, it felt as though we were battling with history itself. No matter how much we willed the past – or, more precisely, the photographic archives – to offer us an equal balance of men and women through whom to tell our story, all too often we would find ourselves surrounded by dudes with bushy beards. The big beasts of history, in their top hats and military uniforms, with their famous names and glorious (or notorious) reputations. 

There were just so many of them.

And sometimes it felt that all we could do was shrug and say to ourselves: well, that’s history for you. It’s a man’s world. Except, of course, it’s not. The historian blaming her or his sources is no better than the workman blaming their tools.

History makes us. But we also make it. 

And although it is true that for most of human civilisation, patriarchy has underpinned most forms of social and political organisation, that, today, is no excuse for laziness. That is why we decided that in this, our third book, we would set ourselves a challenge: no dudes, no beards, no men allowed.

What you hold in your hands today is the result.

This book recounts a history of humanity between 1850 and 1960, told through women’s pictures, lives and experiences. It is designed to serve as a tribute, a tableau, and, in its way, an example. It is a both a conventional history – arranged chronologically and thematically, with an eye for events and important individuals – and a radical one. 

This book is created to show that we can frame our histories just as we frame our photographs: focusing on the things we think are important or arresting or terrifying or beautiful, and cutting out what does not, in the moment we press the shutter, capture our interest. 

There are many ways historians can frame this particular age of history.

There are many ways to tell an infinitely fascinating story.

All that being said, while this book is strongly concerned with women’s rights, it is not primarily an essay on social justice or injustice. The women we have chosen here feature because their stories are interesting and (in the majority of cases) admirable. It is a celebration of their existence and a platform to highlight their stories.

We give you this compilation in the spirit that we first imagined it: as a bright and colourful journey through a great historical age, in the company of some of the most brilliant people who lived in it.

Welcome to  A Woman’s World.

Marina 
& Dan

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A Woman's World, 1850–1960 explores the many roles – domestic, social, cultural and professional – played by women across the world before second-wave feminism took hold. Using Marina Amaral's colourized images and Dan Jones's words, this survey features women both celebrated and ordinary, whether in the science lab or protesting on the streets, performing on stage or fighting in the trenches, running for election or exploring the wild. This vivid and unique history brings to life and full colour the female experience in a century of extraordinary change.