About this item
Who says women don't go to war From Vikings and African queens to cross-dressing military doctors and WWII Russian fighter pilots, these are the stories of women for whom battle was not a metaphor.The woman warrior is always cast as an anomaly--Joan of Arc, not GI Jane. But women, it turns out, have always gone to war. In this fascinating and lively world history, Pamela Toler not only introduces us to women who took up arms, she also shows why they did it and what happened when they stepped out of their traditional female roles to take on other identities. These are the stories of women who fought because they wanted to, because they had to, or because they could. Among the warriors you'll meet are * Tomyris, ruler of the Massagetae, who killed Cyrus the Great of Persia when he sought to invade her lands * The West African ruler Amina of Hausa, who led her warriors in a campaign of territorial expansion for more than 30 years * Boudica, who led the Celtic tribes of Britain into a massive rebellion against the Roman Empire to avenge the rapes of her daughters * The Trung sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, who led an untrained army of 80,000 troops to drive the Chinese empire out of Vietnam * The Joshigun, a group of 30 combat-trained Japanese women who fought against the forces of the Meiji emperor in the late 19th century * Lakshmi Bai, Rani of Jhansi, who was regarded as the "bravest and best" military leader in the 1857 Indian Mutiny against British rule * Maria Bochkareva, who commanded Russia's first all-female battalion--the First Women's Battalion of Death--during WWII * Dr. James Barry (ne Margaret Buckley) , who served as a doctor in the British army in the 19th century, during which time he performed the first ever caesarean section * Buffalo Calf Road Woman, the Cheyenne warrior who knocked General Custer off his horse at the Battle of Little Bighorn * Juana Azurduy de Padilla, a mestiza warrior who fought in at least 16 major battles against colonizers of Latin America and who is a national hero in Bolivia and Argentina today * And many more spanning from ancient times through the 20th century.By considering the ways in which their presence has been erased from history, Toler reveals that women have always fought--not in spite of being women but because they are women.
About the Author
Like many history buffs, history first caught my imagination through stories.One of my favorite things to do when I was small was curl up next to my grandmother and ask her, "What did you do when you were a little girl? " From there it was a short step to reading biographies about historical women who ignored social boundaries and accomplished things - the kind that are written with the intention of inspiring young girls. My grade school's revolving library owned a whole series of them. Every week a new one arrived and I snatched it before anyone else could get it, eager to read about Clara Barton, Madame Curie or Julia Ward Howe.By the time I was in high school, I was that nerdy kid who hung out at the local historical society and at Wilson Creek National Battlefield on the weekends and in the summer. (I even learned to shoot a muzzle-loading rifle - a skill I never expected to be useful on my resume. Life takes funny twists sometimes.) My life as a history buff took an unexpected turn when at the age of eight or nine I fell in love with Rudyard Kipling's Kim. (Did I mention the importance of stories? ) Kipling's India put me on the path to a PhD in South Asia history. It wasn't a straight path. And it wasn't a short one. The first day of my PhD program at University of Chicago, my advisor said, "You know there are no jobs, right? " I knew, but I didn't care. Without the promise (or perhaps the threat) of a teaching job at the end of the road, I kept wandering down fascinating by-ways. I still do, every chance I get.Today my goal is to write books about important historical topics that will engage history buffs and nerdy kids and the intelligent general reader. (That's you, right? ) Accessible doesn't mean easy. The history I write often turns what we think we know about history inside out, or at least looks at the familiar from an unfamiliar angle. In doing so, I ask us to look at the world today from a slightly different angle as well. The impact of this can be profound. If you are able to look at history from someone else's perspective for even a short time, you are more apt to see her as a person rather than "the other." When we re-introduce overlooked populations into the story, the historical framework gets a little bigger, a little more complex. On the other hand, sometimes I just want to tell a good story. Pull up a chair.
