New open access books published in August 2025
Posted on 2nd September, 2025
August is traditionally a time to relax – but we haven’t slowed down! Six brand new open access books have landed this month, covering everything from blindness to Soviet youth games, historical travel to democracy.
Bringing together leading international scholars and artists in the emerging field of ‘blindness arts’, Beyond the Visual: Multisensory modes of beholding art seeks to broaden the discussion of multisensory ways of beholding contemporary art, with a particular emphasis on modes that transcend a dependency upon sight. A true delight to read.
Moving beyond current scholarship in urban and regional studies, Informational Peripheries: Rethinking the urban in a digital age presents a case for ‘informational peripheries’ as an analytical lens to understand the uneven, fragmented and disconnected geographies of urban peripheries in the Global South. Download it free.
So absorbing that one of our team recommended it as excellent bedtime reading, Leagues of Laughter: War, comedy and the Soviet legacy in Russia and Ukraine traces how a Soviet-created youth game changed as students’ nation states collapsed, competed and went to war. A series of interconnected, cross-border stories spanning 60 years illustrates how laughter and oppression entwined in the long cultural context of the war in Ukraine. Download it free.
Our Marketing Manager’s Summer read, No Country for Travellers? British visitors to Spain and Portugal, 1760–1820 explores the rise and nature of British travel to Spain and Portugal between 1760 and 1820. Using extensive archival and printed sources left by travellers in the period, the compelling narrative is a broad and deep investigation into all aspects of travel experience, including non-combatant witness to the Peninsular War. Download it free.
With more than 30 authors, the ambitious The Sciences of the Democracies proposes holistic study of democracy that draws on five sources of knowledge: individual people, groups of people, non-textual media, texts and non-humans. It argues that inclusion of these sources leads to the discovery of democratic practices and institutions unfamiliar to the conventional ‘Western’ perception. Read it free.
The fascinating Women’s Labour Activism in Eastern Europe and Beyond: A new transnational history presents a deeply researched, inclusive history of women’s labour activism in Eastern Europe and transnationally from the age of empires to the late 20th century. It explores women’s activism to improve working conditions and living circumstances of lower-income and working-class women and communities in the region and internationally. Download free.
We’ll be back again next month with a round up of the very best open access books. As always, stay safe!