Policy Press

General non-fiction

We publish serious non-fiction social commentary and debate for a wide audience. These high quality books are written by academics, professionals and other experts in an accessible way bringing key issues of social, political and cultural significance to a wide readership. These books have an impact: advancing knowledge, raising awareness and encouraging social change.

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Showing 13-24 of 124 items.

Inside Thatcher’s Monetarism Experiment

The Promise, the Failure, the Legacy

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher’s new government pursued a monetarist economic policy in response to double-digit inflation, rising unemployment and flatlining economic growth. Tim Lankester's insider’s account offers fascinating insights into one of Britain's most unsuccessful economic episodes and also examines monetarism's legacy today.

Policy Press

Uncomfortably Off

Why Inequality Matters for High Earners

People in the top 10% of earners often drive politics, the public conversation and much of the private sector. This book draws attention to this potentially powerful section of society and explains why it is in their interest that inequality is reduced.

Policy Press

What Are Prisons For?

Hindpal Singh Bhui argues that we need to look at who is sent to prison and why to disentangle reality from ideology and myth. Including the voices of prisoners, prison staff and victims, he asks whether prison is an institution for managing marginalized people, or if there is a better way to achieve the socially useful goals of prisons.

Bristol Uni Press

What Is History For?

Gildea suggests that the more people who really understand what good history entails, the more likely history is to triumph over myth. He sees positive signs in public history, citizen historians and community projects, debunking claims that ‘you cannot rewrite history’, arguing that good history that’s attuned to its times must be rewritten.

Bristol Uni Press

What Are the Olympics For?

While attention is on Olympic triumphs and tribulations, there is much that goes on behind the scenes that is deeply troubling. Boykoff tells us that radical steps are required if the Games are to be fixed and only then will they be truly ‘athletes first’.

Bristol Uni Press

The Economy of Algorithms

AI and the Rise of the Digital Minions

Bristol Uni Press

Raising the Nation

How to Build a Better Future for Our Children (and Everyone Else)

Setting out big public policy ideas, enhanced by contributions from academic and campaigning experts, as well as those with lived experience, Raising the Nation shows why we must prioritise child-centred policies to ensure the future strength of our communities, environment and economy.

Policy Press

Unchecked Power?

How Recent Constitutional Reforms Are Threatening UK Democracy

Alison Young provides the first consolidated account of constitutional changes taking place which strengthen governmental powers and weaken political and legal checks, arguing that the democracy is being endangered.

Bristol Uni Press

Raising the Nation

How to Build a Better Future for Our Children (and Everyone Else)

Setting out big public policy ideas, enhanced by contributions from academic and campaigning experts, as well as those with lived experience, Raising the Nation shows why we must prioritise child-centred policies to ensure the future strength of our communities, environment and economy.

Policy Press

Secrets and Silence

Uncovering the Legacy of the Cleveland Child Sexual Abuse Case

The Cleveland child sexual abuse scandal was not the scandal we thought. Beatrix Campbell shows how medical evidence of childhood rape identified by pioneering paediatricians was deemed credible but ‘dangerous’. This secret has framed policy making and public opinion and has had consequences for children, professionals, justice and the state.

Policy Press

What Are Animal Rights For?

How should we treat animals? The field of animal rights raises pressing questions about how humans treat the other animals as livestock farming exerts an increasing toll on the planet, and we learn more about their capacity to think and experience pain. This book shows what the world might look like if animals had greater rights.

Bristol Uni Press

What Is War For?

This book examines how changes to social rules reshape how states explain their military actions, and changes to technology and society transform contemporary warfare. Analysing the role that war serves in global politics, it outlines the ways in which war affects the contemporary world, from international relations to our day-to-day lives.

Bristol Uni Press