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Women Warriors An Unexpected History Pamela D Toler 9780807064320 Books

Download As PDF : Women Warriors An Unexpected History Pamela D Toler 9780807064320 Books

Women Warriors An Unexpected History Pamela D Toler 9780807064320 Books

I admit, when I ordered this book, I was just expecting a collection of easy to read biographies of "women warriors" like Joan of Arc. Something typically written for teenage/young girls to show them "You can do whatever you want to do!"

This is not that book. (And it made me chuckle in the introduction when the author flat out states that most books about women warriors is a selection of biographies written for young girls and this is not that book.)

Happily, it is a much more interesting and in depth book on women's history in war, battles, sieges, etc. through history. It is written as an academic text in a sociological, anthropological, women's studies vein, though it is very accessible to lay people. The book is divided into chapters about different aspects of women in war, women's role in war in relation to their families (either children or parents or husbands), women leading battles, woman manning the ramparts/holding the fort during a siege. After an introduction in the chapter about about the broader theme, Toler provides three case studies of women warriors that make her case. The cases are quite diverse both in historical eras, race, ethnicity, wealth, etc.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked that it is written in a academic style, providing analysis on the general themes, examining the women's actions in relation to traditional gender roles at the time (and sometimes how men get caught up in these fights because the person on the other side is "just a woman"), in addition to providing interesting biographies on many fascinating and not terribly famous woman. She also discusses why these women aren't well known, often noting that history is often written by men and it is often shameful to lose to a woman. Of course there are other cases, where the woman becomes historically celebrated or a national heroine (Boudica, Joan of Arc, Artemisia) used as a symbol in later fights (often for independence from a colonial power.)

One thing I really liked about this book is that Toler doesn't sugar coat the brutal actions some of the women take, from turning skulls into wine goblets or being willing to let the enemies kill their children (in one case, when the enemies threatened to kill her child if she didn't surrender, one woman pulled up her skirt and pointed and said she could always make more. Not quite the maternal snuggliness we expect from women.)

One minor annoyance I had was the number of footnotes. There are tons of them and they are long and I found it disruptive to the prose to constantly be looking at the bottom of the page and reading something else. Of course on the bright side, I don't normally read footnotes, but Toler's were very interesting and occasionally humorous (she has a dry wit) so I always checked out the notes but then would have to jump back and try to re-find my place. I go back and forth wishing they were end notes (which I definitely wouldn't read) to wishing maybe she just scaled back on the number. It's just a personal preference, I guess.

Overall, an interesting, well written, grown up book on women in combat/war. I gladly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about women warriors (and not just simplified biographies to boost girls' self-esteem.)


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Women Warriors An Unexpected History Pamela D Toler 9780807064320 Books Reviews

Do you look at the military in the United States and think about how many women are within the ranks? The fighters who patrol the areas at war and that new Seal Team recruit.? Are women fighting a new thing in our armed forces a new thing? "Not so", says historian Pamela Toler. Toler, whose new book, "Women Warriors An Unexpected History", is a look at women through history who have fought for their countries, both under-cover and in the open. Women have actually fought in battles at the sides of their husbands and sons and in defense of their cities under siege.

Pamela Toler's book does not have to read all in one sitting. In fact, her individual chapters on women-in-history are best read on their own. She writes about women we all know about - Joan of Arc, for instance - and those lesser known women who fought in Asia and Africa. Her writing is lively, as befits someone with her own historical website can write to engage the reader. I also like the fact that the footnotes are in the text, as opposed to being at the end of the book.

Will "Women Warriors" appeal to the average reader? I think so; Toler seems to write "popular history" with a flair, making the history given an easy accessibility not often found in more scholarly works. And if you're looking for a good work of fiction about women at war, pick up Rita Mae Brown's delightful novel, "High Hearts" about a woman who disguises herself as a man to fight aside her husband in the Civil War.
Now is definitely the time for this book of women warriors! The ascendancy of women's rights has spawned many, many books about courageous, culture-bending history-making women. Pamela D. Toler's book examines women who fought in battle, whether gloriously female in form or disguised as males in order to get in on the action.

The timeline of the book isn't linear, so it's a little confusing to be jumping back in forth in time, as well as country and culture. Ms. Toler examines ancient civilizations up through World War II. As I live in an area of Revolutionary War history, that particular time period and conflict was most interesting to me. I also enjoyed reading of historical figures, like Katherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII's first wife, who have been reduced in history to their reproductive failures or successes, when their accomplishments as leaders of their country and their armies have been all but erased. In many cases, as that of Joan of Arc, their daring and their flouting of societal norms leads to their death at the hands of men who cannot abide the idea of women's equality.

As I've been studying the American suffragists of the early 1900s, I was primed to enjoy this book of women who dared to confront societal ideas of their "sphere" in the world. One quote that Ms. Toler includes is from Nadezhda Durova, a Russian woman who disguised herself as a man in order to fight in the Napoleonic Wars. Her actions allow her to exist as she chooses in the world, and she is giddy about it. "Freedom, a precious gift from heaven, had at last become my portion forever!" she says. "You, young women of my own age, only you can comprehend my rapture, only you can value my happiness! You, who must account for every step, who cannot go fifteen feet without supervision and protection, who from the cradle to the grave are eternally dependent and eternally guarded." It's this feeling of freedom, of moving about freely in the world the way that men do, that women continue to seek, generation after generation.
I admit, when I ordered this book, I was just expecting a collection of easy to read biographies of "women warriors" like Joan of Arc. Something typically written for teenage/young girls to show them "You can do whatever you want to do!"

This is not that book. (And it made me chuckle in the introduction when the author flat out states that most books about women warriors is a selection of biographies written for young girls and this is not that book.)

Happily, it is a much more interesting and in depth book on women's history in war, battles, sieges, etc. through history. It is written as an academic text in a sociological, anthropological, women's studies vein, though it is very accessible to lay people. The book is divided into chapters about different aspects of women in war, women's role in war in relation to their families (either children or parents or husbands), women leading battles, woman manning the ramparts/holding the fort during a siege. After an introduction in the chapter about about the broader theme, Toler provides three case studies of women warriors that make her case. The cases are quite diverse both in historical eras, race, ethnicity, wealth, etc.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked that it is written in a academic style, providing analysis on the general themes, examining the women's actions in relation to traditional gender roles at the time (and sometimes how men get caught up in these fights because the person on the other side is "just a woman"), in addition to providing interesting biographies on many fascinating and not terribly famous woman. She also discusses why these women aren't well known, often noting that history is often written by men and it is often shameful to lose to a woman. Of course there are other cases, where the woman becomes historically celebrated or a national heroine (Boudica, Joan of Arc, Artemisia) used as a symbol in later fights (often for independence from a colonial power.)

One thing I really liked about this book is that Toler doesn't sugar coat the brutal actions some of the women take, from turning skulls into wine goblets or being willing to let the enemies kill their children (in one case, when the enemies threatened to kill her child if she didn't surrender, one woman pulled up her skirt and pointed and said she could always make more. Not quite the maternal snuggliness we expect from women.)

One minor annoyance I had was the number of footnotes. There are tons of them and they are long and I found it disruptive to the prose to constantly be looking at the bottom of the page and reading something else. Of course on the bright side, I don't normally read footnotes, but Toler's were very interesting and occasionally humorous (she has a dry wit) so I always checked out the notes but then would have to jump back and try to re-find my place. I go back and forth wishing they were end notes (which I definitely wouldn't read) to wishing maybe she just scaled back on the number. It's just a personal preference, I guess.

Overall, an interesting, well written, grown up book on women in combat/war. I gladly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about women warriors (and not just simplified biographies to boost girls' self-esteem.)