Penguin Books: Great Ideas

We’re loving this new diverse series of books, we’ve selected a few of our favourites below. Order your copies today.

There are twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. The Penguin Great Ideas series brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.

Why Vegan? by Peter Singer

'So the only question is: do animals other than man suffer?'

One of the great moral philosophers of the modern age, Peter Singer asks unflinching questions about how we should live our lives. The ideas collected in these writings, arguing that human tyranny over animals is a wrong comparable to racism and sexism, triggered the animal rights movement and gave impetus to the rise in vegan eating.

When I Dare to Be Powerful by Audre Lorde

'Women so empowered are dangerous'

Written with a 'black woman's anger' and the precision of a poet, these searing pieces by the groundbreaking writer Audre Lorde are a celebration of female strength and solidarity, and a cry to speak out against those who seek to silence anyone they see as 'other'.

Ain't I A Woman? by Sojourner Truth

'I am a woman's rights. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I am as strong as any man that is now'

A former slave and one of the most powerful orators of her time, Sojourner Truth fought for the equal rights of Black women throughout her life. This selection of her impassioned speeches is accompanied by the words of other inspiring African-American female campaigners from the nineteenth century.

The Power of Words by Simone Weil

'There are certain words which possess, in themselves, when properly used, a virtue which illumines and lifts up towards the good'

The philosopher and activist Simone Weil was one of the most courageous thinkers of the twentieth century. Here she writes, with honesty and moral clarity, about the manipulation of language by the powerful, the obligations of individuals to one another and the needs - for order, equality, liberty and truth - that make us human.

A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart by Martin Luther King, Jr.

'Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to love one's enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival'

Advocating love as strength and non-violence as the most powerful weapon there is, these sermons and writings from the heart of the civil rights movement show Martin Luther King's rhetorical power at its most fiery and uplifting.

Anarchist Communism by Peter Kropotkin

'Everywhere you will find that the wealth of the wealthy springs from the poverty of the poor'

Fuelled by anger at injustice and optimism about humankind's ability to make a better, truly communal society, the anarchist writings of Peter Kropotkin have influenced radicals the world over, from nineteenth-century workers to today's activists.

Suffragette Manifestos

'We women are roused. Now that we are roused, we will never be quiet again'

Bringing together the voices of women who fought for equal rights and representation - from aristocrats and actresses to mill workers and trade unionists - these speeches, pamphlets, letters and articles form an inspiring testament to the power of a movement.

The Freedom to Be Free by Hannah Arendt

'People can only be free in relation to one another.'

Three exhilarating and inspiring essays in which the great twentieth-century political philosopher argues that there can be no freedom without politics, and no politics without freedom.

Order your copies today.

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