Home
/
Non-Fiction
/
Collecting the World
Collecting the World
Apr 20, 2025 8:19 PM

Author:James Delbourgo

Collecting the World

Hans Sloane was the greatest collector of his time, and one of the greatest of all time. His name is familiar today through the London streets and squares named after him, but the man himself, and his achievements, are almost forgotten.

Born in the north of Ireland, Sloane made his fortune as a physician to London's wealthiest residents. In 1687 he travelled to Jamaica, then at the heart of Britain's commercial empire, to survey its natural history, and later organised a network of correspondents who sent him curiosities from across the world. He became one of the eighteenth century's preeminent natural historians and assembled an astonishing collection of specimens, artefacts and oddities - the most famous curiosity cabinet of the age. Shortly after his death, Sloane's vast collection was then acquired - as he had hoped - by the nation. It became the nucleus of the world's first national public museum, the British Museum.

This is the first biography of Sloane in over sixty years and the first based on his surviving collections. Early modern science and collecting are shown to be global endeavours intertwined with empire and slavery but which nonetheless produced one of the great public institutions of the Enlightenment, as the cabinet of curiosities gave way to the encyclopaedic museum. Collecting the World describes this pivotal moment in the emergence of modern knowledge, and brings this totemic figure back to life.

Reviews

A magnificent scholarly coup and an enthralling read

—— John Carey , The Sunday Times

A superb biography - human, judicious and as passionately curious as Sloane himself - and a model of how to write a history of collecting

—— Arnold Hunt , Times Literary Supplement

Robust, thoughtful and elegantly crafted ... Not before time, the smart lad from Killyleagh, creator of one of the world's great civilising resources, has found his ideal chronicler

—— Jonathan Keates , Spectator

In this fine and erudite book, Delbourgo recovers Sloane from the oblivion into which he has fallen

—— Ruth Scurr , Financial Times

Approachable yet authoritative ... Delbourgo has at last given us a readable and entertaining single-volume account of Sloane's life and legacy

—— Michael Hunter , Literary Review

Invisible Women is a game-changer; an uncompromising blitz of facts, sad, mad, bad and funny, making an unanswerable case and doing so brilliantly…the ambition and scope – and sheer originality – of Invisible Women is huge; no less than the story of what happens when we forget to account for half of humanity. It should be on every policymaker, politician and manager’s shelves

—— Melanie Reid , The Times

Hugely readable, packed with facts and insight. An important book written with humour and flair

—— Robert Webb

The thoroughness of Invisible Women doesn’t detract from its absolute readability. This is entertaining, scholarly and so very important.

—— Adam Rutherford

Here are the facts! Caroline Criado Perez shines her penetrating gaze on the absence of women from the creation of most societal norms – from algorithms to medicinal doses to government policy. Knowledge is power – we all need to know how our systems work if we want change. Arm yourself with this book and press it into the hands of everyone you know. It is utterly brilliant!

—— Helena Kennedy

Invisible Women is an absorbing cornucopia of thought-provoking facts - fascinating, alarming and face-palming in equal measures. Caroline Criado-Perez shows up the shortcomings of a world designed for men by men. The consequences of treating men as the default option, or women just as smaller men – if they get considered at all - has wide-reaching implications for everything (and everyone) from snow clearing to seat-belts and many branches of medicine. I shall certainly think of this book next time I have a heart attack, a car crash or just want to go to the toilet at the theatre.

—— Professor Gina Rippon

A blisteringly good book... never less than eye-opening, and frequently staggering

—— Bookseller

It’s a smart strategy to invite readers to view [a] timeworn topic through the revealing lens of data, bringing to light the hidden places where inequality still resides... Criado Perez wields data like a laser, slicing cleanly through the fog of unconscious and unthinking preferences.

—— Guardian

It took the writer and campaigner Caroline Criado Perez to reveal the true extent of the man’s world we live in. What makes Invisible Women so compelling is the mountain of data she draws on. Data, it turns out, matters... The pervasiveness of the problem is staggering...this is a brilliant exposé that deservedly won the Royal Society science book prize

—— Ian Sample , Guardian, Best science, nature and ideas books of 2019

Criado Perez comprehensively makes the case that seemingly objective data can actually be highly male-biased… Policymakers everywhere should take heed

—— Sarah Gordon , Financial Times

Caroline Criado Perez brilliantly exposes the appalling gender bias that underpins the collection of data and how it’s used. From medical treatments that fail to take female biology into account, to car safety features that are designed for the male body, women are the invisible 51%. This deeply researched and passionate book is the most important contribution to gender equality in years

—— Amanda Foreman

arguably one of the most important publications of the year

—— Susan Dalgety , Scotsman

Wide-ranging and vastly well-informed, Invisible Women is a book that promises to transform the terms of the equality debate

—— Sarah Ditum , In the Moment, **Books to Look Out for in 2019**

An eye-opening examination

—— Decca Aitkenhead , Sunday Times

Anyone who doubts that we live in a world designed by and for men needs to read this book, with its implicit message that even what we’ve won so far can never be taken for granted.

—— Literary Review

Invisible Women shines a light on the gender gap in data and what every woman needs to know about it

—— Joanne Finney , Good Housekeeping

Jaw-dropping… This book is a snapshot of the dangers of a world designed to fit a minority

—— Barbara Speed , i

Plain, detailed and almost overwhelming prose… There is no anger in Criado Perez's pages – she is too busy with evidence for that

—— Tanya Gold , UnHerd

Book that did most to change the way I thought? Caroline Criado Perez's Invisible Women... Perez has delivered a much needed correction: full of persuasive examples and analysis of areas from public policy, medicine, economics and elsewhere in which data have been gathered in such a way as to obscure or omit matters of most concern to women. I learned a lot

—— Tim Harford

Invisible Women… is a book that changes the way you see the world

—— Allan Massie , Sunday Times

The book’s force doesn’t derive from the power of its rhetoric – instead it’s the steady, unrelenting accumulation of evidence, the sheer weight of her argument’

—— Sophie McBain , New Statesman

Caroline Criado Perez brilliantly exposes the appalling gender bias that underpins the collection of data and how it’s used. From medical treatments that fail to take female biology into account, to car safety features that are designed for the male body, women are the invisible 51%. This deeply researched and passionate book is the most important contribution to gender equality in years.

—— Amanda Foreman

In Invisible Women…Caroline Criado Perez expounds the far-reaching consequences of the “default male” mode… She urges a realignment of priorities… [a] call to action

—— Mia Levitin , Times Literary Supplement

Ending the biases she [Perez] exposes wouldn’t just reduce inequality; it would, in some cases, save actual lives

—— The Week, *Book of the Week*

Invisible Women is an essential handbook in the fight to build a more equal world. It’s based on enough data to satisfy even the fussiest scientist and will make you look at the world in a new light. However, the style is light enough that it doesn’t feel like hard work. Read it for yourself, then lend it to all your friends, of any gender

—— Chemistry World

Perez’s analysis is wide-ranging and compelling… one of the most powerful takeaways from Perez’s book is the extent to which so much of this [gendered] bias is unconscious, such that we are all infected by it. Feminism is the process of unlearning this, but it’s an ongoing process, for all of us

—— Conversation

An impeccably researched, determined and passionate demand for change

—— Sian Norris , Prospect

The depth and scope of this book will shock you… Invisible Women is an essential handbook in the fight to build a more equal world… Read it for yourself, then lend it to all your friends, of any gender

—— Philippa Matthews , Chemistry World

An extraordinary book

—— Anthony Reuben , Big Issue

One of the most compelling books I’ve read in years

—— Josie Cox , Independent

[An] astounding book

—— Dominic Browne , Highways

A strong case for change

—— Sarah Shaffi , Stylist

Invisible Women makes excellent points about how biased data are hidden and have pervasive negative impacts on the lives of women and girls

—— Margaret McCartney , Lancet

Criado Perez’s devastating indictment is a worthy bestseller

—— Guardain, *Summer Reads of 2019*

This book is a wake-up call for us all

—— Church Times, *Summer Reads of 2019*

Overwhelmingly powerful

—— Kistina Rapacki , Disegno

Few books this year are as important as activist Criado-Perez’s data crunch into the inequalities between men and women. She finds something to engage and enrage on every page

—— Sarah Hughes , i, *Best books of 2019*

A fascinating look at the gender biases affecting our everyday lives

—— Women's Running

This book is comprehensive, well researched and thoroughly referenced with copious endnotes… [it] made me…shift my perspective

—— Toni Sekinah , DataIQ

Thought-provoking, eye-opening

—— Iona Grey , Heat

Not only a gripping but an important book… It’s funny when it’s not horrifying, deeply researched and done with real verve

—— Sam Leith , Spectator, *Books of the Year*

Few books really change the way you look at the world. Invisible Women is one of those rarities

—— Robbie Millen , The Times, *Books of the Year*

What makes Invisible Women so compelling is the mountain of data she draws on… a brilliant exposé

—— Ian Sample , Guardian, *Books of the Year*

Every man should read this book… [Invisible Women] chats, in page after steely, meticulous page, precisely how the world…is designed around men, and how this puts women at an impossible disadvantage

—— James McConnachie , Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*

Funny, exasperating and anger-inducing, there is something for everyone

—— Eleanor Parsons , New Scientist

The essential book of the year, mayhap the decade

—— Marina Vaizey , Tablet, *Books of the Year*

A staggering expose of design prejudice and an impassioned call to action

—— List

Perez takes the truism that ours is a world designed for men and backs it with evidence. Impressively collating vast amounts of research

—— Prospect, *Books of the Year*

A must-read for men and women alike

—— Hannah Beckerman , Sunday Express

This calm, dispassionate, hilarious, entertaining, maddening, infuriating narrative is a highly readable manifesto for real change

—— Marina Vaizey , The Arts Desk, *Books of the Year*

This well-researched book turns everything we accept as normal on its head…[Invisible Women] succeeds in making a powerful case for change in a non-preachy, educative style… It is not entertainment; it is a thesis – and a powerful one at that

—— Alison Herbert and Dr Phyl Hughes , Law Society Gazette

This incredibly well-researched and engaging book highlights how the lack of gender-focused data results in the needs of more than half of the population being ignored. The numerous examples cited by Criado-Perez – ranging from infrastructure to healthcare – are shocking and sobering… Invisible Women offers valuable insight into the transformative power of diversity and equality to drive better economic outcomes

—— Christie Guimond , Briefing

Such an insightful book and a good read for everyone

—— Julie Stewart , Business Times

Incredibly topical and relevant in a rapidly changing world, Criado Perez’s multi-award-winning exposé on data bias has seen her become an authority on modern day inequalities

—— Capacity

Invisible Women...is already a classic, but I can't recommend it enough

—— Sarah Pedersen , Times Higher Education

A powerful, insightful book

—— Tim Harford , Week

Compelling... revelatory... Criado Perez provides bountiful evidence of her thesis

—— Mariel McKone Leonard , London School of Economics

A huge eye-opener

—— Jojo de Noronha , Grocer

A witty, furious page-turner

—— Emma Donoghue , Week

Invisible Women is highly recommended to both men and women as an incredibly readable piece of journalism... Many of you will also find you cannot put down this passionate and informative book until you've finished it... illuminating and engaging

—— Platinum Business Magazine
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved