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seregelda's review against another edition
3.0
Moderate: Incest, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and War
Minor: Ableism and Rape
mari1532's review
4.0
Brief Summary: This book examines the biographies and legacies of six women who ruled Ancient Egypt: Merneith (consort and regent in the First Dynasty), Neferusobek (Pharoh of the Twelfth Dynasty), Hatshepsut (consort and Pharoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty), Nefertiti (consort of the Eighteenth Dynasty), Tawosret (Pharoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty) and Cleopatra VII (Pharoh of Ptolemy Dynasty).
Thoughts: I had listened to Cooney's Great Courses on women in Ancient Egypt and was excited to dive into this book. I enjoyed it immensely. My favourite was the section focused on Nefertiti, who of the six women discussed is probably the second most recognizable. However, I did not know a great deal about her story. Cooney does an excellent job of discussing the known biographical information of Nefertiti as well as the new research concerning what may have happened to her after the death of her spouse. It is always fascinating to learn about new research.
I also enjoyed the discussion of Cleopatra. I think one of the things that is most difficult to remember when learning about Cleopatra in particular is that she was the loser of a conflict and as a result much of what we know about her is through the patriarchal and xenophobic Roman Generals who defeated her. As a result, Cooney's approach to discussing Cleopatra as a successful ruler was refreshing and a counterbalance to many of the sources from the period in which Cleopatra lived.
I will say that the thing I liked least about this book was how it kept linking the lack of favour for female rule in Ancient periods to today. I think that it was fine to draw that line in the introduction, but it felt a little repetitive after a while. Also, it is difficult to make historical figures out to be proto-feminists, which it did feel like Cooney was trying to argue in certain areas throughout the book. That is not to say that some of the six women discussed did not do things for the women in their societies, but I think it would be a leap to say that their use of power improved the lives of all women within society.
If you are interested in female rulers, Ancient Egypt, or history more generally this is an interesting read that will encourage you to seek out more information.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, and Classism
kloughlin's review
3.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Incest
Moderate: Death, Suicide, and War
Minor: Infidelity, Abortion, and Murder
fkshg8465's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and War
qwerty88's review against another edition
3.25
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Infertility, Misogyny, Suicide, and Murder
at least there are lots of footnotesdarkmagyk's review against another edition
1.75
There is a great deal of "she probably felt this" or "she must have known that." And sometimes its used as almost a framing device, saying something like "this woman was born around this time, so she probably saw this important contextualizing event." But other times it seems to go directly into personal thoughts and feelings, even though she, rightly, comments that we can't know a lot of the personal details because so much of the record is incomplete and impersonal.
Another great issue with the book is that much of it tries to relate the role of women in an authoritarian monarchy over a four thousand year history with 21st century American politics. Doing it requires a very essentialist view of womanhood, a constant reframe is "women rule differently." But very little is discussed about how gender was constructed in anticent Egypt that give any idea of what that is supposed to mean, its only meant to be seen through 21st century American view.
I've seen some people call this book pop history. I disagree. I think the history is very good, Cleopatra's chapter was my favorite. It's got a true academics desire to argue there favorite theories, but that's not necessary a bad thing when it is identified as controversial, which it normally is. But what it is is pop feminism. Its essentialist, citing women as behaving one way and men as another, when the six women who's stories are told obviously go about things in different ways. It cites the heavily misogynistic field of study Evolutionary Biology that has been criticized and disproven. It also is almost embarrassing how much it tries to frame 6 (maybe, some of them are contested) women coming to power over 4000 years as an improvement on current American politics. I would never claim American is anything close to free of patriarchy, but like the Anticent Egypt described, you can find a handful (more then 6, even, in a much shorter time frame) women who have ascended to #girlboss and the like.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Suicide