Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of Amazons, The

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Discounting the entries for fictional woman warriors or even a few misplaced aggressive sorceresses, after reading through this you will realise that women have never acquiesced entirely to being penned inside the role of nurturer and care-giver. If anything, in ancient days they may have been just as aggressive and destructive as men, because they were just as powerful. Certainly, this book made me realise that at any time in history, in almost any culture, there are women who take up arms, whether in wars or barfights, and if a minority, they are not a myth or "a twisted male fantasy." This would have been stronger as a history, or at least an encyclopedia arranged by dates rather than alphabet (it has been done). It would benefit from the addition of an index by time and place. It's excellent to carry with you to browse in traffic jams, waiting rooms, and other bits of time, since you can read it one or two articles at a time.

As a student of medieval history, I found the book to be valuable in acquainting me with histories of women warriors in early European history. However, I can't forgive Ms. Salmonson for her gross error in the death of Aethelflaed, warrior daughter of Alfred the Great. While Aethelflaed did help her brother drive the Vikings out of England, she most certainly didn't die in combat as alleged by the author. Please read the excellent biograghy, "The Lady Who Fought the Vikings," by Don Stansbury. She did lead her forces but was more known as a peace and treaty maker, and she never fought in combat.

I feel that Ms. Salmonson may have taken literary license with other historical figures so please investigate further any women warriors that interest you. I have my own copy of this book but believe it may have other flaws. Nevertheless, it still is an excellent compendium of women warriors and makes great reading for historians and lovers of fantasy fiction.

A true unveiling of the Herstory that needs to be told! This book is really an encyclopedia with entry upon entry of strong, brave, and heroic women! The author uses various sources, historical and mythological to tell the stories of these women who you'll never hear about in any other accounting of history! A pretty exhaustive source for heroines I only wish she could write an entire book about every one of the entries!!!

I recently had the good fortune to obtain a copy of this book second-hand, and am finding it an unputdownable, fascinating read. Quite simply, it has to be one of the strongest aids in righting the imbalance of history as it is traditionally recounted. Once the general feeling of astonishment subsides, it becomes an affirmation of the tenacious strength and courage of women. This something that we are all too often encouraged to disown, ignore, and utterly forsake, to the huge detriment of ourselves as *people*, regardless of gender.

Consume this book, and learn to celebrate everything within you that is considered unbecoming, unfeminine, and unseemly. Those are the words of a terrified patriarchal society unable to treat such strength and courage equally, as Ms. Salmonson illustrates for us so well.

I would advise reading 'The Women's History Of The World' by Rosalind Miles after this; I suspect the reader would then be left with a flaming indignance and anger about the current state of womankind . . .

So, obtain a copy of this wonderful book by any means possible - treasure it; and openly applaude those women today who live by their own truths, strengths, and convictions, and who kick society's apple-cart over in doing so - more of it, I say!

I read this book a long time ago and loved it. I'm not big on war, I believe that we can cure it for good with brilliant minds put into action, but as a last resort when all peace methods have failed to take up arms is a necessity. I'm not sure that Gandhi's methods would've worked on Hitler and the Nazis. Once they have crossed the line and are willing to torture children, peaceful protesters would've been shot down like all others. When great evil arises you MUST be able to fight. I believe we are living in a male supremacist society with dangerous, vicious ideology both in world religions, pop culture and politics. Christianity is a fascist ideology that believes in male supremacy and is willing to sacrifice and torture the young, most also believe in only one religion (only theirs, other male supremacist or predator religions are tolerated) and drive all others into extinction. If we care about liberty and love we must fight them.

I believe Amazons did exist, the Romans talked of them as if they were literally real, not just in myth and legend of their art. It makes sense that in tribal cultures women would take up arms, it also makes sense that people who were free and not yet controlled by organized male supremacist civilizations would have a chance to separate themselves and fight those who sought to take away their liberty. Even now, women fight, in history and even in male supremacist environments they occasionally take up arms.

Young women could potentially defend older women and children. With technology we could protect ourselves like never before, intelligence and tech being a great equalizer. All women should take self-defense courses and prepare themselves mentally and emotionally for worst case scenarios. When others have power, your loves, your liberty and eventually your lives will be slowly taken away. You must value the highest ideals and be able to at least try to defend your innermost values and desires. In all male supremacist societies women have no say in religions or government except as tokens. I believe that's where we are now. The majority of all resources, military, religion, and social structure is owned and controlled by males. See if you can start a women's rights, animals rights, and children's rights religion, see if homemaker's and caretaker's can be paid for their labors. See if you can get power that CAN"T BE TAKEN AWAY BY THEM. We have no real power, because we have no ability to defend our rights should they desire to seize them. Which is already happening.

Scenario - you fight for women's rights, the male networks support you for a time, they decide they don't want to suddenly and decide something else like setting up a religious government that controls your body and mind and very self, or takes the rights of your individual life away, or controls the media so only an anti-feminist message can be heard. You have no options. Because you have no real power. You. must. seek. real. power. Political, knowledge in the form of education, technology, science and physical prowess of women participating in defense. Study also social organizations that have can free you from religious ideology that practices the subjugation of women (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, structure as well as many others.) Study the protection of your rights, make a daily effort like exercise or eating - and women's social structure that can actually stand on it's own.

We could potentially pay each other for our labor in terms of some of the jobs that are not valued, but many women end up doing - homemaking, care-taking of elderly, children and animals etc.... Many of these women are doing necessary grunt work labor that is devalued, because something like say - building a building is considered valuable, but conveniently, keeping it up and caring for it is generally not. Cleaning a street is valued or a business, but cleaning the homes of our families is not. We should be paid as community workers just like street keepers and garbage men and plumbers are paid. We clean the toilets, we should be able to be paid of the upkeep of our homemaking and it's order and loveliness. It's just a mind's illusion that what you do is not real. Your work is as valuable as any - we just have to say it. All we have to do is place value on it ourselves, pool our money and divide it up amongst us. There's probably a convenient law against this or will be soon. Fight for yourselves and for each other and for animals and children who are in totally helpless position to defend themselves. Some feminism is not defensive of the powerless, so avoid it except in extreme situations. Go for women's advocates that also protect the weak and defenseless. That's what I believe an Amazon would do. (Exception: some male supremacists use children as well as beloved pets a weapon over women to keep them in line, or to limit their abilities to defend or protect themselves. What you must do is organize like ants. Caretakers and homemakers (like the queen ant) in the center protected areas. Young women like the soldier ants - defending. Again last case scenarios, but options for if you need them. Another last case scenario option - abort, or do not have children until you are free. In True Women she would've shot her children rather than have them tortured, used, abused and killed anyway. Some women would rather see their children dead than raised as slaves or victims or die in horrible pain without their mothers. This is a terrible, but just notion.) I only say these things for women who are caught in intolerable situations. Those threatened and owned by predators, those unable to live without liberty. If there is another way always seek it. This book inspired some of my strength, because I have been through some very predatory abuses - so much my own story seems incredible to me sometimes. It is real. You would not believe what is out there. Another Amazon strengths: Study tech, psyche tech, image and psyche warfare, spy tech and social manipulation. Pay attention to Pavlov and his dogs - and NLP. Read "THe Game" and others - not to use these tactics - keep your moral core - but to develop defenses against them. Protect the elderly, young, and uneducated. Most of all moral, emotional intelligence - the highest form of intelligence - that which takes us to to pure goodness. These are modern amazon techniques. This book was great because of the pure inspiration, read it and love the women who struggled for themselves with whatever power they could acquire.

When I was visiting this page, I noticed this book is out-of-print, AGAIN. It should remain so, ever!... Because it is so good that each new edition should be sold completely in advance of coming out of the press... Well, it has minor flaws, like some Latin mispellings. But it is one of the most complete, and synthetic introductions to a number of strong female characters of history and, well... mythology - that's exactly history again, but of times in which there were no written records like Salmonson's to help us know exactly whom did what to whom, when, and why. Mainly warriors, these historical short biographies will let you know - men and women alike - that there is no such thing as a female sex. And will make you to think a lot why the heck you were not told about the strong minded, and bodied... Cleopatras and Arsinoes, before that long-nosed Cleopatra! Yes, indeed, male historians have been keeping things away from you, since you were a little boy or girl. That Ms. Salmonson book be not only a light entertainment for you, for the first in a series of readings on Amazons. There are lots of them in the Net - and I do not mean the XXX files, I mean, the historical ones. END

Thought this was well written, a serious topic
with a humorous touch. And it caused me to buy
more books on some of the women mention that I was
not aware of.