The Business of Letters is a broad-ranging study of authorial economics in antebellum America that describes writers' exchange practices as profoundly rooted in, and constitutive of, social bonds.
The book explores Islamophobia as a form of cultural racism, emphasizing the motivations behind the use of its narratives by various individuals and groups. It examines how, since 2001, Muslims in Britain have been portrayed as a significant 'other,' perceived as threats to social cohesion and national security. This analysis highlights the societal and ideological factors contributing to the persistence of Islamophobic sentiments and the implications for community dynamics in contemporary Britain.
In June 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and called for Muslims around the world to migrate there. Over the next five years, around 150 women left the UK to heed this invitation, and the so- called 'jihadi brides' were rarely out of the news. This book traces the media fascination with those who joined the 'caliphate', including Sally Jones, Aqsa Mahmood and Shamima Begum.Through an analysis of the media that presented the 'brides' for public consumption, Leonie B. Jackson reveals the gendered dualistic construction of IS women as either monstrous or vulnerable. Just as the monstrous woman was sensationalised as irredeemably evil, the vulnerable girl was represented as groomed and naïve. Both subjects were constructed in such a way that women's involvement in jihadism was detached from men's, scrutinised more closely, and explained through gender stereotypes that both erased the agency of female extremists and neglected their stated motivations.As Jackson demonstrates, these media representations also contributed to the development of new norms for dealing with the 'brides', including targeted killing and the revocation of citizenship. While the vulnerable girl was potentially redeemable, the monstrous woman was increasingly considered expendable.