{"title":"Books by Kate Brown","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780141988542","title":"Manual for Survival","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Remarkable . . . grips with the force of a thriller' Robert Macfarlane\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The most brilliant and essential book on Chernobyl since that of Nobel Prize-winner Svetlana Alexievich' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e** National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2019 **\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe official death toll of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, 'the worst  nuclear disaster in history', is only 54, and stories today commonly  suggest that nature is thriving there. Yet award-winning historian Kate  Brown uncovers a much more disturbing story, one in which radioactive  isotopes caused hundreds of thousands of casualties, and the magnitude  of the disaster has been actively suppressed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor years after, Soviet scientists, bureaucrats and civilians were documenting staggering increases in birth defects, child mortality, cancers and other life-altering diseases. Worried that this evidence would blow the lid on the effects of radiation release from Cold War weapons-testing, scientists and diplomats from international organizations, including the UN, tried to bury or discredit it. Brown also encounters many everyday heroes, often women, who fought to bring attention to the ballooning human and ecological catastrophe, and adapt to life in a post-nuclear landscape, where the dangerous effects of radiation persist today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBased on a decade of archival and on-the-ground research, \u003ci\u003eManual for Survival\u003c\/i\u003e  is a gripping historical detective story that brings to light the real consequences of Chernobyl - and the plot to cover them up.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A troubling book, passionately written and deeply researched' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56224718258549,"sku":"9780141988542","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141988542_3e6c4f72-1714-4b16-8f3b-976cdc457960.jpg?v=1786011203"},{"product_id":"9781447338383","title":"Understanding Theories and Concepts in Social Policy","description":"\u003cp\u003eDemonstrating the relevance of theory to political and policy debates and practice, this lively and accessible second edition helps students to grasp the real-life implications of social policy theory. The updated text includes consideration of contemporary shifts in welfare ideologies in the context of global austerity and the UK Coalition and Conservative governments since 2010. With a new chapter focusing on critical debates about disability, sexuality and the environment, this textbook also includes fresh reflections on migration, conditionality, resilience, social justice and human rights.   Key features include:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ereal-life examples from UK and international politics and policy to explain and illuminate the significance of social policy theory;\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ekey questions for student reflection and engagement; and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebulleted chapter summaries and annotated further readings at the end of every chapter.   This new edition is a dynamic, engaging and valuable introduction to the key theoretical perspectives and concepts deployed in social policy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56300109791605,"sku":"9781447338383","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781447338383_fc630b95-a950-4b96-9471-ded16dd8e103.jpg?v=1786020899"},{"product_id":"9781847929259","title":"Tiny Gardens Everywhere","description":"A big history of little spaces, of nature in urban life, and of gardeners and their gardens through time'Galvanising and hugely readable' Financial Times 'A wonder! Absolutely riveting and beautifully written. I hope we can all heed its wisdom’ ISABELLA TREE'Splendid' Mail on Sunday'Engaging and inspiring. A fascinating history into the quietly radical role of allotments' CHRIS FITCHIn the heart of bustling European and American cities lies an overlooked yet vibrant corner of resilience, ingenuity and magic: our gardens.   From pre-industrial England to modern-day Ohio, via the Paris Commune, Barackia in pre-war Berlin, Soviet allotments in Estonia, the orchards tended by Black migrants in Washington and food forests in contemporary Amsterdam, ordinary people, working with each other and with nature, cultivated life in the unlikeliest of places. Over the past three hundred years, these tiny gardens, often born from necessity and shaped by precarity, immigration and environmental crisis, have thrived by recycling nutrients, remedying contaminated soil and transforming how we think about our relationship to the earth.   Tiny Gardens Everywhere is a hymn to the most fertile agriculture in recorded human history, showing that it occurred not on farms – the product of gigantic exertions of fossil fuels and technology – but with little effort in small garden beds. And the resourcefulness, intuition and inherited methods of their growers accomplished many of today’s sustainability goals by producing local, diverse and organic food.   Acclaimed historian Kate Brown unearths the long and battered story of gardeners and their gardens, asking what happens when these urban Edens are not seen as retreats from the city but become part of its social fabric, alive with histories of displacement, conflict and resistance. This is a book about land, but also about community, repair and the quiet revolutions that begin when someone plants a seed in unloved ground.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56369336877429,"sku":"9781847929259","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57682858770805,"sku":"9781529979732","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781847929259_51531871-b84b-45cb-a3f9-fbd62ac80989.jpg?v=1792511681"},{"product_id":"tiny-gardens-everywhere-1","title":"Tiny Gardens Everywhere","description":"\u003cp\u003eNurturing health, hope, and community, gardeners in cities and suburbs are reclaiming lost commons, transforming vacant lots into vibrant plots, turning waste into compost, and recreating what was once the most productive agriculture in recorded human history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a history that has been hidden in plain sight, working-class gardeners have consistently played an outsized role. In London, they devised ways to feed themselves when wage labor fell short. In Paris, a superabundance of horse manure in the streets nourished urban gardens that fed two million residents. In Berlin, gardeners built social safety nets for those marginalized by the state. In Washington, DC, African American migrants brought rural traditions of self-provisioning that were later disrupted by “urban renewal.” In rustbelt Mansfield, Ohio, farming ex-cons grow hope for the city’s future. In post-Soviet Estonia, shared gardens became lifelines for survival amid economic upheaval. And in Amsterdam, activists are reclaiming sustainable farming practices in a sinking landscape oversaturated with fertilizers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTilled into this rich history of urban agriculture is an inspiring layer of contemporary activism. Each chapter includes contemporary stories of people from all walks of life who, in their gardens, are continuing a great tradition of mutual aid, political resistance, and bold experiments in sustainability.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA manifesto for the next food revolution, \u003cem\u003eTiny Gardens Everywhere\u003c\/em\u003e blends past and present, archive and experience, to offer a truly inspiring vision of the transformative potential of gardening and urban life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57555326009717,"sku":"9781324156925","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-kate-brown.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}