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Nurturing Acts

Is motherhood political? In a new book, Helen Charman examines how politics in Britain and the north of Ireland have been defined by motherhood as a state of radical possibility.

Margaret Thatcher waving during her election campaign

Mother State is searing in its criticism of the rightward turn in the politics of motherhood since Thatcher. (Photo by Derek Hudson / Getty Images)

At a time when much left publishing seems to have exchanged political resolve for posh essayism, it is a relief and a delight to encounter Helen Charman’s Mother State: A Political History of Motherhood. A likely breakthrough work for one of the Left’s most eloquent new voices, this is a remarkable debut which somehow — despite […]

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