Uppity Women of Medieval Times

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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 305.40902 EAN: 9781573240390 ISBN: 1573240397 Label: Red Wheel / Weiser Manufacturer: Red Wheel / Weiser Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 264 Publication Date: 2007-05-01 Publisher: Red Wheel / Weiser Release Date: 2007-05-01 Studio: Red Wheel / Weiser
Related Items Uppity Women of the Renaissance Uppity Women of Ancient Times Uppity Women of the New World (Uppity Women Series) Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages Wild Women: Crusaders, Curmudgeons, and Completely Corsetless Ladies in the Otherwise Virtuous Victorian Era
Editorial Reviews: Meet 200 \"Serfer Girls,\" \"Battle Axes,\" \"Amazons in Shining Armor,\" and a host of others who dazzled the Dark Ages and rocked the Renaisaance as, once again, Vicki Leon makes history sizzle.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Fun and inspiring, but not incredibly scholarly Comment: This is a fun quick read, and can easily serve as a springboard for those who find the subject matter of the Middle Ages, and Medieval women in particular, interesting. Though it's not really meant as a thorough in-depth scholarly historical study, there are a lot of fascinating historical tidbits contained within its pages. The book is divided into ten sections, with categories such as "Got a Brain, Not Afraid to Use It," "The Joy of Sects--31 Flavors of Religious Life," "Plagues and Other Predicaments," and "Persecution Mania, Witch-Burning Madness." Prior to reading this book, I had only heard about two dozen of these women, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Khadijah (Prophet Mohammad's first wife), Empress Constance (who became a first-time mother, to Frederick II, at the age of 40), Pope Joan, Christine de Pizan, and Sei Shonagon. Although many people seem to think of the Middle Ages only in relation to Europe, the women in this book come from all over the world--Korea, Angola, China, Japan, Spain, Mexico, Georgia, Russia, Hungary, England, India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and many other diverse locales. The women covered in this volume did a lot of things that most people don't associate with Medieval women, such as having careers, being best-selling authors, exploring the "New World," being medical pioneers, making important astronomical discoveries, and fighting on the battlefield. Many of them were feminists before feminism even had a name. However, the book does have its shortcomings, as other reviewers have mentioned. Ms. Léon's Medieval timeline encompasses 470 to about 1650, whereas most other sources say the era began about the year 300 and ended either in the 1490s or the 1500s. Quite a few of the women profiled clearly lived in the Renaissance, and one of them, Queen Elizabeth I, had an entire historical era named after her. I don't exactly think of women like Queen Elizabeth I, Sophia Brahe (sister of the more famous astronomer Tycho Brahe), Countess Erszebet Báthory, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Mary, Queen of Scots as having lived in the Middle Ages. The slangy writing style can also get to be a bit much. The constant attempts at sounding funny, hip, and witty actually dumb down the historical research that went into the writing of this book, to say nothing of the amazing women profiled within. While it's possible to strike a balance between a scholarly presentation of the facts and hip modern language designed to make the material seem interesting and relevant to the modern audience, that wasn't always the case here. For example, what self-respecting Medieval woman would have used a silly childish word like "preggers"? The nicknames Ms. Léon frequently gives her subjects can also get to be a bit much, particularly when they're not nicknames that anyone would have used in the respective subjects' languages or homelands, like calling French-born Queen Melissande "Mel" or calling Bianca Capello's husband Francesco "Frankie." Seemingly little details like this can compromise the entire premise, even if it is meant to be a series of brief semi-humorous biographical sketches instead of a long-winded historical treatise. (A pronunciation guide also would've been helpful for some of these names.) Still, the basic material is so interesting and tells such a long-neglected story that these less-than-scholarly aspects of it can be overlooked to a point. Customer Rating: Summary: It could have been so much better Comment: _Uppity Women of Medieval Times_ has so much potential. It is frustrating that potential is wasted. It is wonderful that women are beginning to receive the historical attention they deserve - however, flippant and downright silly historical abstracts like _Uppity Women_ do a disservice to women's history. I can forgive the broad take on when the middle ages took place, but struggled with the author's voice, which attempts at being humourous and "fresh" (often referring to women by nicknames created by the author.) The book itself is entirely composed of one - two page summaries of the lives and "accomplishments" of women during the middle ages. That so little information is written about the women discussed is another disappointment. More depth and less breadth would have made a much better read. The choice of women presented further detracts from the book. While many women who deserve recognition for real contributions are included such as washerwomen of the Crusades, Walladah - al Mustakfi and Sei Shonagon, there are many, many more women included who had no historical contribution whatsoever. This inclusion seriously detracts from those women who did. (Juana la Loca readily comes to mind.) A final irritation were outright historical innacuracies - for example, claiming that Nicolo Machiavelli wrote _the Prince_ for Catherine d' Medici (in 1533) - simply inexcusable in a "history" book. A bright spot of _Uppity Women_ was its international flavor. While the vast majority of its subjects were European, women from the Near East, the Americas and Asia were also included. I would recommend this book for middle schoolers, or perhaps (as an earlier reviewer noted) as bathroom reading. Customer Rating: Summary: Good as a subject intro or middle school resource... Comment: I picked up this discount book at a Barnes & Noble. It was promoted as a bargain book and looked a bit like a novelty item, but it seemed like it would have some generally interesting information about women in medieval times. Upon perusal, I noticed that the text included anecdotes about medieval women of Spain, the Middle East, and Africa--an interesting subject that I know little about--and I made my decision to purchase the book. Because it's written in short biographical sections, the book makes a lovely bathroom book, or something to leave on the nightstand. I found the lax and conversational writing style to be acceptable, as that was part of my initial impression of the book. I wasn't looking for or expecting a hardcore historical resource, just something cute and slightly informative that might provide a boost to my self-esteem. The book itself is quite enjoyable. That said, I started paying closer attention to some of the details of the book--okay, maybe not details, but important things, such as the cover and inside flap. The cover reads: "200 daring damsels who dazzled the dark ages and rocked the renaissance." The inside front cover flap reads: "From Queen Elizabeth to Joan of Arc..." Perhaps someone forgot to clue the publisher in on the fact that the renaissance comes after medieval times and that Queen Elizabeth had an entire historical period named after her--or perhaps she was gallavanting with Shakespeare when he wrote a clock in Julius Caesar and they knew some secret means of time travel? The other piece of information that simply made my jaw drop was the classification of the book, noted on the bottom of the back cover: Humor/Games. Apparently, someone at Barnes & Noble publishers thinks that important female historical figures are the subject of humor and games. Despite what other reviewers may have indicated about Ms. Leon's writing, I like it. I think the book is a good idea in a very accesible format--I could see this book as being useful for a middle-school level resource or educational tool or as a coffee table book. I think that this book was written and intended to fill a specific niche of readers, and that's okay! However, the careless descriptions of what is most likely more accurate information is entirely unacceptable and completely misleading. While learning about women's history should be fun, the book isn't about humor, it's about the contribution of women to medieval society. I recommend the writing if you're looking for something light or introductory--please don't be misled by the publisher's mistreatment of the material. Customer Rating: Summary: Lots of fun and humor! Comment: This was the first of the "Uppity" women books, that I read. In my opinion it is the best. It's so funny! You can't help but love it. Customer Rating: Summary: Another enjoyable Uppity Women collection Comment: I enjoyed Uppity Women of Ancient Times very much, so i was very pleased to discover this follow-up volume, another collection of brief biographies of interesting women. In this volume I found many characters I already knew, and many more I did not. A few minor quibbles, the author's definition of 'medieval' seems to be a bit elastic, it appears to go up to the 17th century, which is not as far as I know generally considered to be part of the medieval period. Also she is a bit prone to exaggeration, especially when she talks about the 'witch craze' being a holocaust against women. She mentions a figure of 100,000 executed, whereas I beleive the real fugre is more like 40,000, not all of them women. Also she conveniently ignores the fact that while most the victims were women, so were most of their accusers. Also she seems to have the modern obsession with careers, though the modern notion that the only worthwhile way to spend your time is in some kind of paid employment was not in vogue in the middle ages, women who worked more likely did so from economic necessity, rather than from any desire to be 'career women'. These are minor quibbles though, the stories of the women are amusingly told, and there is a bibliography at the back for those interested in learning more (a pity it includes Barbara Walker's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, which is pure fantasy). Overall, a very amusing read. More Reviews