Warrior Queens: The Legends and the Lives of the Women Who Have Led Their Nations to War

by Antonia Fraser

Overview

In this panoramic work of history, Lady Antonia Fraser looks at women who led armies and empires: Cleopatra, Isabella of Spain, Jinga Mbandi, Margaret Thatcher, and Indira Gandhi, among others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679728160
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/14/1990
Series:	Vintage Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.13(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Antonia Fraser is the author of many internationally bestselling historical works, including Love and Louis XIV, Mary Queen of Scots, and Marie Antoinette, which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola. She is also the author of two memoirs, Must You Go? and My History. She has received the Wolfson History Prize, the 2000 Norton Medlicott Medal from Britain's Historical Association, and the Enid McLeod Franco-British Society Literary Prize. Fraser was made a Dame for services to literature in 2011.

Editorial Reviews

"The Warrior Queens is lore-packed...and fascinating to read....Fraser has assembled a remarkable group of women for our contemplation....They have outmaneuvered, outtalked, outblustered, and in some cases outshot and outridden the cream of the crop.... Fraser is to be congratulated for rescuing them from their own myths and for giving them their due as individuals." — Margaret Atwood, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Fascinating...it is a pleasure to encounter the kind of quick and lively mind that informs every page...the bright and steady pilot light of Antonia Fraser's intelligence." — The New York Times Book Review

"Antonia Fraser's The Warrior Queens is an intelligent and artful study of women rulers who commanded in battle.... Ms. Fraser at once clarifies history and suggests the many ways that myths betray history.... She holds our attention and she misses nothing." — The New Yorker

"Lady Antonia catches fire.... There is humor. There is lots of fascinating detail on the sexual mythology that has surrounded most women rulers. There is real insight into how women wield power.... There is a pleasure in having the stories of so many remarkable women gathered in one place." — Chicago Sun-Times

"Cleopatra, Zenobia, Tamara, Jinga Mbandi of Angola, Catherine the Great and Caterina Sforza, England's two Matildas and Tuscany's one, the beautiful Queen Louise of Prussia and Queen Elizabeth I of England, the names roll on as these women led their countries into victory and defeat.... Fraser, always a diligent historian, has... become a graceful writer and achieved the formidable task of winding a variety of women and countries onto one skein." — Cleveland Plain-Dealer

From the Publisher

In a series of cleverly linked biographies, Fraser here tells the stories of a long line of history's ``warrior queens,'' at the same time exploring and illuminating the myths, paradoxes and ambiguities that attend their status as aggressive female leaders, and the ``mingled awe, horror, and ecstasy'' that they inspire. She begins with the British queen Boadicea, who in A.D. 60 led a massive but doomed rebellion against the Roman occupation (and whose spirit haunts the entire book), and ends with the modern trio: Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher. In between come the likes of Isabella of Spain, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great and the beautiful Rani of Jhansi, who, wronged by the British, earned herself a permanent place in Indian legend by the heroic role she played against them in the so-called Mutiny of 1857. Fraser ( Mary Queen of Scots ; Cromwell ) buttresses her book with sound scholarship, while her insights and enthusiasm make it beguiling. Illustrated. 60,000 first printing; BOMC and QPBC alternates. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In her justly acclaimed biographies of Oliver Cromwell and Mary, Queen of Scots, Fraser established her rare ability to breathe exciting life into historical figures. In this work she covers 17 women, from Queen Boadicea to Margaret Thatcher, who have ruled, specifically in time of war. Her character vignettes are sharp and incisive, and along the way she offers some intriguing thoughts on how societies through time have reacted to females cast in a role of military leadership. The final chapter, which is an overview of what might be termed the psychology of ``warrior queens,'' ought to be required reading for every student of history. Highly recommended. BOMC and Quality Paperback Book Club alternates.-- James A. Casada, Winthrop Coll., Rock Hill, S.C.

Library Journal

YA-- Using Britain's Queen Boadicea as a focus, Fraser presents a provocative study of exceptional women leaders whose patriotic and military actions are resounding proof that women have made their mark many times over in fields usually dominated by men. Leadership roles of Warrior Queens Boadicea, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, and Margaret Thatcher--and many others--are examined in the context of the paradoxes and politics of their times. This book brings to life historical fact from a feminist viewpoint. A worthwhile addition to the history shelves.-- Jenni Elliott, Episcopal High School, Bellaire, TX

School Library Journal