Customer Reviews

A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present, Vol. 1

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This book about women in Europe from before recorded history until present took ten years for the authors (Bonnie S. Anderson and Judith P. Zinsser) to write. M's Anderson taught at Brooklyn College. M's Zinsser taught at Bryn Mawr College. Their ten years of work was very well spent in producing this detailed history book.

If you read most history books, you'll notice very little is mentioned about what the women were doing at that particular point in time. What was it like to be a noblewoman and have your husband go off to war? What was the daily activity for a peasant's wife? What was labor and childbirth like for women of those times? Was there a Renaissance for women? Did the spread of Christianity hurt or help women?

M's Anderson and M's Zinsser answer these questions and so much more in this well researched book. They detail the archaeological evidence that supports their writing, as well as various written works that provide a glimpse into women's lives hundreds of years ago. There are various pictures of artifacts, as well as artwork depicting women through out the years.

There are many things I never thought about in regards to being a woman in the past. The fact that female children, for example, were breastfed for only a year while their brothers nursed for two years (thereby affording more protection against diseases) seems especially disheartening. The information about the noblewoman's life seems particularly sad in this day and age. Basically a daughter was used as property by her parents who wanted her to "marry well" - perhaps to form an alliance with a more powerful noble's family or to gain land. Some parents even went as far to beat their daughters into their marriages. Their life didn't become easier once they got married. The noblewoman would have to arrange for moving to different estates, supervise the staff and the laborers, figure out the taxes and the annual income among other tasks.Not exactly how it's portrayed in movies or books, is it?

This is a book to read and ponder. All the aspects of a woman's life is covered in this compelling book - childbirth, contraception, religious practices are just some of the subjects this well organized book describes. M's Anderson and M's Zinsser makes the past come alive with their writing style. I recommend this book highly for those who want to learn more about the often overlooked history of women.

This rich litany of examples finds women of all classes fulfilling many roles. It illustrates a fine cross-section of European women through class and time.

Unfortunately, I found fault with factual accuracy. I restrict comment to just one sentence: "When a province, the Vexin, was suggested as dowry for the three-year-old Marguerite, princess of France, Henry II seized her, took her to his lands in Normandy, and married her off to his five-year-old son."

No one "seized" Marguerite. Her transfer to the Plantagenet King Henry in exchange for the Vexin had been negotiated in Paris months earlier amid much ceremony by Henry's chancellor, Thomas Becket. The Vexin was not a province. The county was a strategic, heavily-fortified buffer zone between Normandy and France. King Louis VII of France was willing to trade his infant daughter into a strategic betrothal in order to control it. Apart from the Vexin's importance, both dynasties hoped that an heir born to this couple would unify England and France under one crown. This was "win-win" diplomacy. King Henry dined with King Louis and the infant's mother, Queen Constance, on the evening before he escorted ("seized") Marguerite from Paris. The royal caravan included the ladies and wet-nurses of the child's future household, as well as Marguerite's father, King Louis, and Henry. The two kings lodged the child in her new home, Henry's Norman capital, Rouen, and then toured Normandy together.

Female infants were often transferred to the family into which their parents had betrothed them, because it was believed they would thereby acquire their future in-laws' characteristics. The doctrinal source for this had endured for more than 2,000 years, since Genesis suggested that environmental influences imprint young creatures. (See Genesis 30, for the tale of Jacob, Laban and the streaked and spotted goats. For that matter, see the "woolly breeders" passage in "The Merchant of Venice" 1.3.)

I do not suggest that this treatment of Marguerite and many other noble infants, male as well as female, was humane. I am questioning the lack of factual accuracy and interpretive awareness. By all means use this book as a rich source of interesting narratives revealing women's history, but double-check the facts.

Robert Fripp,
Author of "Power of a Woman. Memoirs of a turbulent life: Eleanor of Aquitaine"
(Eleanor writes her memoirs)

I read this book several years ago and found it well-researched and informative. I am happy to see that it is still available. I recommend it highly to all who are interested in learning about women's roles in history. It's not just about dead white men!

All women should read this book to understand how women have evolved into the roles we have today. It was a very revealing book for me; explaining the roles women have had over many centuries and how they relate to various time periods in history. Very interesting book!!!

This is a wonderful resource book and frighteningly descriptive book on our female ancestors. I actually purchased this to replace my original copy which had been lost during a move. It goes back to very early history and how women were revered and considered strong and virtuous, to the decline and low value women attained in even our own current history. There is a sequel to this which touches more on the late 1800's to current time. I am ever amazed at the strength and spirit of women. Women have endured many unfair practices and have been the target of abuses of every kind from the earliest of times. The book illustrates not only the low notes, but the ways women have come back to secure themselves using the law and other means. A highly recommended book if one wishes to understand more about womenkind.

Ms. Anderson was my professor in Brooklyn College, and she was great. Although I haven't read the book, I'm sure it's good stuff.