Customer Reviews

Uppity Women of Ancient Times

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I received this book and its companion on Medieval women as gifts. One lives in the bathroom and one by my bed. I am deeply interested in history and was looking forward to learning about an often-overlooked segment of the population - the women, famous and not, who influenced and contributed in large and small ways to their times.

It's clear that Ms. Leon has done a lot of research, but her writing style is terribly irritating and ultimately gets in the way of the material. She could have written it in an informal conversational style that would have served the same purpose, that of making the material accessible and interesting, but she chose instead to use a dated, "cool" Daddy-O style that just doesn't suit the material or ring true to her voice. Hip jargon is cool only briefly, and people who try to be funny usually aren't; why did she find it necessary or appropriate to trash her research and insult the intelligence of her readers with her silliness? I appreciate her obviously extensive research and the fact that she included ordinary women as well as movers and shakers, because we really know very little about women in history, but then she undermined her own efforts with her ridiculous writing style. That's why I rate the book at 3 instead of 5 - the content is worth a 5 but it's hard to take seriously a work that its own author obviously didn't.

I feel sorry for the author, Vicky Leon, who is trying to appeal to the cheap side of her readers, if there is such a thing. She obviously has done a good amount of research, but her cliched, hackneyed writing style and attempts to be "cute" make it impossible for me to read with seriousness or enjoyment. Frankly, and I must admit this with some guilt, I bought the book just for factual information-- names, dates, general data-- but with chapter headings such as "Pharaohs, Physicians, Fat Cats & Filly-Fanciers" and "Singers, Sexual Stand-Ins & a Sassy Slave or Two" and practically every sentence containing duds such as "good old Sam," "put him off," "let it all hang out," "dear old grandma," etc., etc., etc., it's impinging on a clear desire to learn what I should already know....Ok, if I'm such a deadbeat, let's make it two and a half stars.

Ms. Leon is clearly a well-researched historian, and has endeavoured to provide useful information in easily digestible sound-bites for those who could otherwise be bored by history. Brava! I really enjoyed this book, and plan on getting the others in the series. People who never read history will be entertained by the short, informative, juicy little 1-page tidbits on each compelling woman. Ms. Leon presents a view of some of these women that is different for what I have seen elsewhere, and I would be interested in seeing how she arrived at some of her conclusions. Probably another story.

I enjoy the Uppity Women series by Vicki Leon greatly. I have read most of the volumes and have been lucky enough to purchase for myself a couple for my library. I will keep adding to the collection until I have every one. Some may find her style to be flip or fluffy. But, I think her writing is passionate and shows a deep love and affinity for women in history. If anyone who wrote the other reviews actually read the writing of women in history. In particular, travel literature by Isabelle Eberhardt, Flora Tristan, Isabelle Bird, Francis Trollope etc. You and they might see that women in history wrote about themselves in an exuberant, lively, fun and impassioned manner. Ms. Leon is only following in their brilliantly and unfortunately almost forgotten footprints. If you love women, literature, and history, please by the series and buckle up! It is a wild and wonderful ride through the world of women!

This book (and the rest of the series) is written for people who are NOT fascinated by dry, scholarly textbooks. Plenty of people are subjected to the usual bland recounting of historical events and have surmised that history is not only boring, it's sexist. This series turns both notions on their heads. If you are looking for a "serious" tome on feminist history, don't bother reading this. The author wrote in conversational, slang-ridden style in order to appeal to people who AREN'T history buffs. Why so many people wrote reviews trashing this book because it isn't boring just shows the elitist snobbery that academica carries within. If you are mildly interested in learning a bit about women who never got their fair shake in male-centric world of historical writing, this book is for you. THe research is solid, the stories are true and nothing in this book is "bad" other than her glib style. If writing in an appealing way is somehow tantamount to heresy in historical writing then so be it. I personally cannot understand why a book with so much to say (in a short amount of time) is so maligned just because it isn't written to put you to sleep.

THis book was dry in some places and the stories seemed incomplete and the book did not flow. Some of the women featured did not seem great to me, at least not great enough to be featured in the book. THe women were portrayed to be male crazed and there seemed to be a great number of concubines who wanted power. The authors purpose of showing women were people too, who weren't just wives or the mother of.. was shown in some cases but in many they were just that. The book should have been comprised of longer stories of less women.

In her entertaining and excellent work Vicki Leon, has written biographies of some of the most famous, not so famous, and infamous women of the ancient world. Leon spins her tales of these women, who are indeed uppity, with humor, wit, and a knack for presenting them as real people not just historical figures. Many professional historians, and other fans of history would scoff at a book like this as not being serious history. However, history also need not be heavy, and dry. Why not make it an exercise in both learning and fun? This book is simply for the fan of history, who wants to enjoy it with a good laugh. And in this Leon has done a superb job, and I recommend her book highly.

I really appreciate the thought behind this series of books but constantly find myself frustrated at the tiny amount of space given to each subject. I always want to know more and am annoyed when that's all there is. I would instead recommend something like "The Mammoth Book of Outrageous and Heroic Women", which gives you a one paragraph summary of each woman, but then goes on to give you another six or eight pages of detail.

I like books on ancient peoples, particularly, women, so I picked up "Uppity Women" hoping for a factual and engrossing account of the lives of women in ancient times. Instead I read a collection of seriously silly bios with so much slang, and so much silliness it was difficult to understand WHAT the author was trying to say.

The author's 'gossip column' style of writing seems more appropriate for magazines featuring two-headed-alien-babies than a serious work on historical feminism. Sure, this may appeal to teens or people who don't have serious scholarly inclination. But for those looking for true facts on the lives of ancient women might be disappointed in this hodge-podge of history and modern lingo.

3 stars. I found the writing poor, and the author's slang-ridden 'voice' irritating, incomprehensible, and distracting.

An excellent book: very informative, witty, and easy to read. Leon celebrates 200 different women, most of whom I had not heard before, and not only from Greece and Rome. Several are from Africa and the Orient, and she even includes the amazing British Celt Boudicca