this was a really unique read, I enjoyed learning about the Bombers in Britain. It was really well written and felt like this was something that I hadn't heard of before.

The suffragettes (as distinct from suffragists) actually led Britain's first terrorist campaign. Areal you shocked? I was shocked, but Simon Webb presents such a good argument for this that there is really no doubting it. He dispels the myth that they were a harmless group who threw rocks at a few windows and set small fires to some letter-boxes, never intentionally harming anyone. The Pankhursts were actually in charge of a proto-fascist group which committed countless bombings, arson attacks, and even tried to assassinate Lloyd George. They also didn't want votes for all women, but only votes for a certain higher class of women. Some leading suffragettes joined Mosley's Blackshirts and even wrote about the extensive similarities between the suffragettes and the Fascists.

Simon Webb also gets rid of our ideas about Emily Davison who became a martyr by throwing herself under the King's horse at the 1913 Derby for 'the cause'. She is called 'young' on the BBC History website, but she was over 40. This might be young today (although probably only if you are a CEO or a PM) but it certainly wasn't then. He writes that Davison was a fanatical woman who committed other attacks, and didn't care about harming other people. She also couldn't get a job.

This became a bit repetitive, but it was mostly because the members of the Women's Social and Political Union committed so many attacks, including placing bombs in Westminster Abbey and St Paul's, burning down country houses and setting fire to railway stations. Webb lists all of them to make his point. However, I found his analysis of the suffragettes, why we mistakenly admire them and why women eventually got the vote excellent.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Webb sets out to prove his argument that rather than heroines, the Suffragettes were In fact early terrorists acting irresponsibly and irrationally and that they.hindered rather than helped the Suffrage movement. I found it absorbing and interesting and learnt much about the politics and historical context of the time. Webb writes fluently and persuasively and the book is extremely well researched, It is clear that Webb has strong views and at times I found myself wondering what the counter argument was - it is very one-sided, - but then again, Webb does make it clear from the start that the book is based on his particular premise.

This book was very thought provoking and made me think about the Suffragettes through a very different lens - I enjoyed reading it and would recommend to anyone interested in this period.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

"In the years leading up to the First World War, the United Kingdom was subjected to a ferocious campaign of bombing and arson. Those conducting this terrorist offensive were members of the Women's Social and Political Union; better known as the suffragettes."

Simon Webb artfully interweaves analysis and history in his monograph, The Suffragette Bombers. Through a unique and fresh narrative standpoint, he delves deeper into the Women's Social and Political Union and their terrorist campaign. Suffragette and terrorist are not usually two words I would usually associate with each other, but as Webb argues, they are not mutually exclusive. He further points to connections between this organization to fascism and conservative politics, which was absolutely fascinating and unlike anything I had read before.

I am a history student currently working on a significant thesis project on female Russian terrorists. One of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much was because I could make connections to my own work. However, I think Webb's writing is extremely accessible to everyone, not just academics. The language he uses is understandable to anyone regardless of their level of expertise. Furthermore, he writes almost as if he's telling a story, which I found made the monograph flow in a concise, interesting way. Regardless if you've heard of the suffragette bombers or not, for anyone interested in this topic, this book is a great place to start!

#TheSuffragetteBombers #NetGalley

My thanks to the publishers for an advanced review copy of this book, which was first published in 2014, when we may indeed have been enjoying the ‘safety and comfort of the twenty first century’, which the author assumes for his readership as he tries to give a flavour of the Edwardian period in which the suffragette bombers took their actions.

The book certainly does provide a wealth of fascinating information about the guerrilla warfare activism of the suffragette movement and is right, I think, to at least wonder why the astonishing range and number of violent actions, which continued regardless of whether the leadership were at liberty or not, have been airbrushed out of the narrative we are given about them. There are also fascinating links which appear to have been made between militant suffragettes and the Fenians and later the IRA as well as early Indian freedom fighters, such as Madan Lal Dhingra who assassinated Curzon Wyllie in 1909.

The author gives a good picture of the turbulence of the Edwardian era. There were troops deployed on the streets, on the railways and on the Mersey in 1911 to prevent strikes and mass uprising not to say revolution. There was a threat of civil war in Ireland over Home Rule in 1913 and 1914. And all this was on top of a constitutional crisis where the House of Lords could and often did obstruct legislation and an existing men only suffrage system based on property ownership and residence in which some men voted twice and many not at all.

The trouble is that the author sees suffragettes as representatives of ‘a profoundly undemocratic and arguably proto-fascist terrorist organisation’. To support this view, he finds a lot of posh girls in the movement - indeed, the term suffragette was coined as a disparaging and patronising diminutive to capture the perception of wild, young, posh things - and a couple of suffragette women, Norah Elam and Mary Allen, who later joined Moseley’s fascists. The rest of his case rests on a supposed cult of personality over the Pankhursts along with Emmeline and Christabel’s support for equal rather than universal suffrage. Emmeline of course was so much a fascist that she later stood for parliament as a Conservative Party candidate.

What to make of this nonsense? Certainly the suffragettes were not poor and rarely working class. Their leaders look to me to have been as prone to fascist sympathies as the rest of their class but certainly no more so than members of the royal family and many other English aristocrats.

The author thinks it likely that suffragette actions delayed votes for women and that they were terrorists rather than tireless campaigners and selfless martyrs. I am not spoiling the plot by telling you this. The author bangs on and on, repetitively citing the same examples again and again to reinforce his rather bizarre view that violence like this never pays, despite events of the entire intervening century proving that liberation is normally only achieved after the immense sacrifices entailed in taking up violent struggle.

On votes for women, it is plainly nonsense that suffrage would have been achieved before the First World War, had there been no suffragettes and only well behaved and well balanced suffragists showing how worthy women could be. The author has told us why governments were preoccupied by other events and Asquith and the House of Lords both opposed the policy anyway.

So incensed by Suffragette terrorism is the author that he finds only young women and older women with ‘little going on in their lives’ drawn to suffragette activism. Wives apparently join the worthy suffragist societies instead. He paints virulent individual portraits of Emily Davison and Jennie Baines as stereotypical examples of unhinged and unbalanced women lacking something in their lives.

This is a pity as there are more interesting questions, which could be asked and I would hope be answered in a history of the suffragettes. Where did the money come from for the movement, whose funding dwarfed that of the Independent Labour Party and increased as the actions became more frequent? Why were sentences so lenient for attempting to assassinate prime ministers and chancellors and set bombs in railway stations, aqueducts and homes, when other freedom fighters of the time were treated so differently?

This book is worth reading for much of the information it carries but the depth and quality of its narrative and analysis is woefully poor.

Thank you for netgalley and Pen and Sword for the arc of this, thank you to Pen and Sword for granting my wish for this book.

4 star read- This was an excellent read, Simon Webb really explains about the actions of the radical, Women's Social and Political Union and shows their radicalism. Simon Webb also manages to illustrate the motivations behind the radical action of the suffragettes and he shows how the Womens Social and Political Union was run and the tyrannical rule of Emmeline Pankhurst that led to splits within the Womens Social and Political Union and even led to Pankhurst's daughters opposing her.... he even shows the difference between the suffragettes and the suffragists as well as equal and universal suffrage.

Such an interesting and interesting read im so interested in history so this was a dream i loved this!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you for the opportunity to read "The Suffragette Bombers" by Simon Webb. Here follows my honest review.

Not enough has been written on the history of the women's suffrage movement, so I was very excited to read Mr. Webb's book. Every secondary source has a bias that the reader must consider, as opposed to the primary source which was created at the time the history occurred. I appreciated the photos that were included. These primary sources were very illuminating; however, Mr. Webb's bias against the suffrage movement in Britain was not. I can understand his criticism of bomb-wielding suffragettes; I, to, consider that terrorism. His contention, however, that women like the Pankhearsts were a detriment to the movement and that suffrage would have occurred without them is audacious and ludicrous. I am highly doubtful that the men of Britain would have given the franchise to women if not for suffragists like the Pankhearsts.

Thank you again for the chance to read a NetGalley book. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this one.

An interesting s\insight into the suffragettes. Something not usually written about. Engaging, interesting and noteworthy. A good read to enlighten a read about a movement over one hundred years old.

This was a very enjoyable and informative read although at times it was a wee bit repetitive. Although I had studied the period in history and thought I knew quite a lot about the suffragettes it would seem that in recent years their reputations have been somewhat whitewashed. As the author said - Scotland " took the brunt" of their terrorist exploits and it was a shock to me to realise that I live so close to most of the places that they bombed or set fire to - and it has been completely forgotten about. Their violent exploits actually resulted in women having to wait longer for the vote as you can't reward terrorists, the peaceful suffragists must have been furious about that.

In The Suffragette Bombers, Simon Webb sets out to prove that a group of suffragettes associated with the Women's Social and Political Union 'conducted a widespread and sustained bombing campaign' and that 'they did more harm than good to the cause of women gaining the parliamentary vote. (introduction).

Webb clearly shows the difference between suffragists and suffragettes; equal suffrage and universal suffrage; and defines terrorist as per the modern day understanding. He gave context to the activities of the WSPU Suffragettes by explaining other events happening in the country (ex. The Great Revolts 1911) and the mood of the current government.

The authority of Webb's argument suffers from inconsistent citation. There are no footnotes or endnotes. Sometimes citation is given within the text of title, author, and date for quotes from books or publications. Other times quotes are written with no citation whatsoever. For example, on page 119, the author quotes the publication 'Votes For Women' but does not include the edition or date of the publication. Later on the same page, he quotes Christabel Pankhurst writing in The Suffragette 29 May 1914.

In The Suffragette Bombers, Webb challenges long-held beliefs about the suffragettes and the militancy of their actions, showing that a group of suffragettes within the WSPU did commit a campaign of bombings and arson attacks that did more harm than good to the cause of women's suffrage.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.