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Disgrace: Global Reflections on Sexual Violence
Looking across time and the globe, a critical history of sexual violence—what causes it and how we overcome it.
Disgrace is the first truly global history of sexual violence. The book explores how sexual violence varies widely across time and place, from nineteenth-century peasant women in Ireland who were abducted as a way of forcing marriage, to date-raped high-school students in twentieth-century America, and from girls and women violated by Russian soldiers in 1945 to Dalit women raped by men of higher castes today. It delves into the factors that facilitate violence—including institutions, ideologies, and practices—but also gives voice to survivors and activists, drawing inspiration from their struggles. Ultimately, Joanna Bourke intends to forge a transnational feminism that will promote a more harmonious, equal, and rape- and violence-free world.
Disgrace is the first truly global history of sexual violence. The book explores how sexual violence varies widely across time and place, from nineteenth-century peasant women in Ireland who were abducted as a way of forcing marriage, to date-raped high-school students in twentieth-century America, and from girls and women violated by Russian soldiers in 1945 to Dalit women raped by men of higher castes today. It delves into the factors that facilitate violence—including institutions, ideologies, and practices—but also gives voice to survivors and activists, drawing inspiration from their struggles. Ultimately, Joanna Bourke intends to forge a transnational feminism that will promote a more harmonious, equal, and rape- and violence-free world.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published September 26, 2022
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About the author
Joanna Bourke
38 books67 followersJoanna Bourke (born 1963 in New Zealand) is an historian and professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London.
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January 1, 2026
Bourke is a leading academic historian of sexual violence, and this is another extremely valuable contribution from her. Unlike her influential earlier monograph "Rape: A History from 1860 to the Present," this book has a strong contemporary focus and a global perspective. The book rejects universalizing, transhistorical, and naturalizing perspectives on sexual violence, instead using an approach developed from radical feminist intersectionality to examine local particularities while also paying close attention to general, and even global, similarities.
Those familiar with her formidable bibliography on the subject will recognize many of the themes, topics, and preoccupations here, but I learned a lot of new things as well. The depth of research, case studies, and theoretical perspectives (including, I was glad to see, some deep queer theory) is truly impressive, though this also faces some of the common challenges of global history--how can you craft a project that is truly global? Is it really possible to write a genuinely global history on this difficult topic?
The book is clearly intended for non-academic readers, and I found it very accessible and would recommend it to any reader ready for such difficult material. It is of course a brutal read, but the text is far from hopeless. The book develops a theoretical approach for a broad leftist, feminist anti-rape solidarity and activism, ending with a chapter that imagines a rape-free world. Perhaps utopian--she writes that some of her friends even found her goals naive--but moving to read from someone who has studied this topic so deeply and must have many, many reasons to despair. More narrowly, I found the study inspiring for thinking about my own historical research and writing. This is the very last book I read in 2025; I actually finished it on Jan. 1, 2026. A bracing message and challenge to begin this year with. I think she gives us some truly valuable tools that can help us improve our future.
Those familiar with her formidable bibliography on the subject will recognize many of the themes, topics, and preoccupations here, but I learned a lot of new things as well. The depth of research, case studies, and theoretical perspectives (including, I was glad to see, some deep queer theory) is truly impressive, though this also faces some of the common challenges of global history--how can you craft a project that is truly global? Is it really possible to write a genuinely global history on this difficult topic?
The book is clearly intended for non-academic readers, and I found it very accessible and would recommend it to any reader ready for such difficult material. It is of course a brutal read, but the text is far from hopeless. The book develops a theoretical approach for a broad leftist, feminist anti-rape solidarity and activism, ending with a chapter that imagines a rape-free world. Perhaps utopian--she writes that some of her friends even found her goals naive--but moving to read from someone who has studied this topic so deeply and must have many, many reasons to despair. More narrowly, I found the study inspiring for thinking about my own historical research and writing. This is the very last book I read in 2025; I actually finished it on Jan. 1, 2026. A bracing message and challenge to begin this year with. I think she gives us some truly valuable tools that can help us improve our future.
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