This book is collection of essays, written roughly between the years 2010-2017, aimed at exploring an individual's capacity to act independently and to make free choices within limited circumstances, such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, ability, customs, etc. that determine or limit an agent's capacity to act. The works contained largely focus on the use of agency within western literature with a few exceptions including "Animals as the Subaltern," which more broadly speaking would fall under the category of animal studies, as well as "The Outliers: Barbarians, Women, and Eunuchs," which outside of being the only eastern work in this collection is also the only work which can be considered historical.