The Patriarchs by Angela Saini

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Praise for SUPERIOR

Deeply researched, masterfully written, and sorely needed, SUPERIOR is an exceptional work by one of the world’s best science writers – Ed Yong, author of I CONTAIN MULTITUDES

A bold and provocative new book from the author of SUPERIOR, a finalist for the 2020 LA Times Book Prize

Historians and anthropologists agree that the ways in which we live now are not how we have always lived. Monogamous marriage, nuclear families, all our varied social structures and gender norms across the globe are social and cultural constructions, sometimes in part underscored by biology, but certainly not defined by it. When it comes to the oldest and most pervasive hierarchical human system of all – patriarchy – this too, was an invention. It emerged in some place at some time in our past, and spread through the world.

In THE PATRIARCHS the acclaimed science writer Angela Saini explores the complex, often mysterious story of how human domination of women by powerful men may have first appeared, what forms it has taken and still takes, and the exceptional societies in which male domination is not the norm. She sets to lay out in one volume the breadth and depth of one of the most barbaric human hierarchies, a brutal way of organizing society that has crushed the lives of billions of people and continues to do so, through institutions such as religion and law, as well as baked-in social values, customs and traditions.

She reflects on the glorious myths that linger in our hinterlands about matriarchal societies that may have existed in the past, and discovers whether there is any truth to them. And she looks at the sheer breadth of human culture today and through time, offering examples of radically different ways of living that transcend common gender models and upend the hierarchies that we have treated for so long as immutable.

Drawing on scientific storytelling, historical and social science studies, as well as firsthand reportage around the globe, Saini paints a portrait of how society changed when patriarchy emerged, what this means for how we think about ourselves today, and how a radical new future may look.

ANGELA SAINI is an award-winning British science journalist and broadcaster. Well known for presenting science programmes on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, she also writes for the Guardian and New Scientist, as well as prominent journals including Science. A former BBC and ITN television news reporter, she has a masters degree in engineering science from the University of Oxford and a second masters in science and security from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She is the author of three books, GEEK NATION: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World (Hodder, 2011), INFERIOR: How Science Got Women Wrong – and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story (Fourth Estate (UK)/Beacon (US), 2017) and SUPERIOR: The Return of Race Science (Fourth Estate (UK)/Beacon (US), 2019).

Agent: Peter Tallack

Publisher: Fourth Estate (UK)/Beacon (US) Delivery: Autumn 2022 Publication: Autumn 2023 Status: Proposal Length: 100,000 words

All rights available excluding UK & Commonwealth (Fourth Estate), Netherlands (Ten Have)