Naomi Baker
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drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Naomi Baker
@drnaomibaker.bsky.social
3K followers 1.4K following 530 posts
Senior Lecturer in English Lit, U of Manchester| Assoc. Editor Literature & Theology

📚Voices of Thunder: Radical Religious Women of the Seventeenth Century (2025)

https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/voices-of-thunder
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drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Naomi Baker @drnaomibaker.bsky.social · Jun 27
“the most accessible, detailed and well-informed study to date of the 17th-century women preachers and prophets … many will find it an eye-opening revelation”

Am thrilled with this wonderful endorsement of VOICES OF THUNDER by Prof. Nigel Smith

@reaktionbooks.bsky.social #earlymodern
Reposted by Naomi Baker
uomcreativemcr.bsky.social
1 WEEK: Reflecting on Manchester Criminal Prosecutions

📅 17 Nov, 5pm
📍Sam Alex Building

Book: https://ow.ly/ibxU50Xe7zX

University of Manchester School of Social Sciences School of Arts, Languages and Cultures @uomlaw.bsky.social CoDE - Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity Garden Court Chambers
November 10, 2025 at 9:00 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
It was such a privilege to talk about Voices of Thunder with Jana Byars on the New Books Network podcast! Link below 🌟📚
Naomi Baker, "Voices of Thunder: Radical Religious Women of the Seventeenth Century" (Reaktion Books, 2025) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:07 PM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Rosalia’s new album is about female mysticism, but reviewers are already saying it is “really” about her own break-up. A woman writes about the experience of self-transcendence and even then she is still assumed to only ever be writing about her own romantic experiences
November 7, 2025 at 1:32 PM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Writing for The Conversation is great for many reasons - one of which is that you can see how many people have read your piece. Am amazed to see that my recent article about a 17th-century woman’s account of domestic abuse has had almost 30,000 reads! #earlymodern
November 7, 2025 at 10:00 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Elizabeth Barton (1506-34) was a servant woman who defied Henry VIII, warning him that to marry Anne Boleyn would incur divine wrath. As I show in “Voices of Thunder”, female mystics were some of the fiercest critics of patriarchal forms of oppression - they posed a real threat to the status quo
November 7, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by Naomi Baker
mathewlyons.bsky.social
Link here! mathewlyons.substack.com/p/ten-books-...
November 5, 2025 at 8:30 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Very grateful to The Broken Compass for highlighting the women whose stories I tell in Voices of Thunder ✨
November 5, 2025 at 8:25 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Voices of Thunder is one of ten books to look out for, according to Mathew Lyons in The Broken Compass 🤩 As he says, these “highly vocal women” have been “drowned out in much of the historiography” and make a “brilliant subject for a book”! 🌟 #earlymodern
November 4, 2025 at 3:32 PM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Thanks @waterstones.bsky.social Trafford for having me in to sign books today! 📚
October 23, 2025 at 4:54 PM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
The History section of @waterstones.bsky.social Trafford has a new Her-story arrival on its shelves 😊🤩 Spotted by a friend - it’s so great to see it out in the wild, and in such fabulous book company 📚
October 20, 2025 at 11:13 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Library within a library @porticolibrary.bsky.social
October 19, 2025 at 7:08 PM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
It was wonderful to have my book launch last night @porticolibrary.bsky.social. I had such a brilliant time! Thanks so much to everyone who came along - it was standing room only which was incredible. It meant the world to me that so many people want to hear about these amazing women 📚#earlymodern
October 18, 2025 at 8:06 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
I wrote a blog post about the incredible Rose Thurgood for @TheJohnRylands blog 📚 #earlymodern
thejohnrylands.bsky.social John Rylands Research Institute and Library @thejohnrylands.bsky.social · Oct 17
In our latest blog, Dr Naomi Baker writes about Rose Thurgood’s conversion narrative from 1636-7, which gives us a rare insight into religious women’s lives and beliefs in the decades before the English Civil War.

Blog: https://ow.ly/Pt7i50Xcva4

Dr Baker's latest book: https://ow.ly/ltyT50Xcvnm
October 17, 2025 at 9:32 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
It was a privilege to talk about the radical C17th women in my book with @sixteenthcgirl.bsky.social for Not Just the Tudors. We had a brilliant and wide-ranging discussion about a Yorkshire maidservant who met the sultan of the Ottoman Empire … and much more!

shows.acast.com/not-just-the...
Voices of Thunder: Radical Women of the 17th Century | Not Just the Tudors
How radical women of the English Revolution reshaped faith, gender, and political power
shows.acast.com
October 14, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Naomi Baker
seventydys.bsky.social
I had the great pleasure of editing Naomi Baker’s Voices of Thunder, her groundbreaking book on radical religious women in the 17th century, which arrives with these emphatic endorsements. Out today from @reaktionbooks.bsky.social. #earlymodern
In Voices of Thunder Naomi Baker gives us the most accessible, detailed and well-informed study to date of the women preachers and prophets of the seventeenth-century, a time when nearly all women were meant to stay home and be quiet. Baker shows us how very many women were involved and influential in the early Baptist and Quaker movements and beyond, and how sharply they saw gender and class oppression, while often enduring harsh persecution, usually by men, at home and abroad. With notable biographical skill and sympathy, the author shows us how the women prophets saw and experienced their world. All can benefit from this book, and many will find it an eye-opening revelation.' Nigel Smith, Princeton University, author of Andrew Marvell: The Chameleon Voices of Thunder offers a ground-breaking account of the radical women who, during the political, social and religious turmoil of seventeenth-century Britain and Ireland, found voice and vocation. Naomi Baker is an outstanding guide to this complex, challenging and extraordinary culture. Crawford Gribben, Professor of History at Queen's University Belfast and author of J. N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism This book crackles and fizzes with the energy and bravado of the many overlooked women who metaphorically hitched up their skirts to challenge forms of authority that sought to marginalise them. Naomi Baker brings deft erudition to her narrative and stylishly synthesises the complex histories of religious radicalism in the seventeenth century. This elegantly written and lively book has much to teach us about belief, politics and activism in both the seventeenth century and the contemporary moment. Danielle Clarke, Professor of English Renaissance Language and Literature, University College Dublin Her timely book reminds us of the urgent need to listen to the voices of those who disrupt our social and moral commonplaces.' Adrian Streete, Professor of Early Modern Literature and Religion, U of Glasgow
October 13, 2025 at 11:43 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Thanks @tomasstanger.bsky.social for this lovely review of Voices of Thunder!
October 13, 2025 at 9:05 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
It’s PUBLICATION DAY!! 🌟⭐️💫 I’m very happy to see Voices of Thunder going out into the world 📚
October 13, 2025 at 6:19 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
RIP Diane Keaton, what an absolute star in all senses of the word. I sometimes try to copy her style just a little bit - no-one could come close of course 💔
October 12, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by Naomi Baker
uomcreativemcr.bsky.social
Huge congratulations to our friends at @mcrlitfest.bsky.social as this year’s Manchester Literature Festival begins! 🎉 This year celebrates 20 years of literary magic - and once again @manchester.ac.uk is the proud official HE partner.

Explore the full programme: manchesterliterature...
October 11, 2025 at 8:30 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Anne Wentworth (1630-c.1693) endured years of abuse at the hands of her husband. She knew speaking out would alienate her from the Baptist church of which they were both members, but she went ahead and published 4 accounts of the abuse. I tell her remarkable story in Voices of Thunder #earlymodern
October 10, 2025 at 7:16 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
One of the most daring theological works of the C17th, published by Elizabeth Avery in 1647. It reconsiders every mainstream Protestant teaching about the apocalypse, and caused her to be denounced as a heretic, including by her own brother. I tell Avery’s story in Voices of Thunder #earlymodern
October 9, 2025 at 10:26 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Several of the women I write about in Voices of Thunder were accused of being witches - it was done to silence and shame them because they were uncomfortably outspoken and nonconformist. Great to see someone advocating for women like them! #earlymodern #witch
Maidstone council requests pardon for 17th Century 'witches'
Maidstone Borough Council says alleged witches are "victims of a huge injustice rooted in misogyny".
www.bbc.com
October 7, 2025 at 1:06 PM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Spotted in the wild for the first time!! 🤩 At Blackwells on Oxford Rd in Manchester - so exciting to see it making its way into the world after so long in my head 🧡
October 7, 2025 at 9:20 AM
drnaomibaker.bsky.social
Had a great time today chatting with @sixteenthcgirl.bsky.social for the Not Just the Tudors podcast on History Hit. Watch out next week for the episode on Voices of Thunder and radical 17th-century women!
October 6, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by Naomi Baker
valeriavescina.bsky.social
Thank you, @drnaomibaker.bsky.social. 👏 It really is vital for a wide public to be aware of the path by which we get to real conquests - not just to fully appreciate these, but also not to take them for granted.
drnaomibaker.bsky.social Naomi Baker @drnaomibaker.bsky.social · Oct 3
As the first female Archbishop of Canterbury is appointed, it’s worth remembering that dissenting women were preaching to mixed sex congregations in London as early as 1645. My book Voices of Thunder has a whole section on 17th-century “she-preachers”

#earlymodern
October 6, 2025 at 9:24 AM