Femina: The instant Sunday Times bestseller – A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It

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Christophe Boltanski, Kerry Hudson et Emmanuelle Loyer lauréats du Femina 2015". livreshebdo.fr. 11 November 2015 . Retrieved 7 November 2015.

How authoritative and engaging the writing style is - it has academic weight without veering into inaccessible or or overly academic language Janina Ramirez is a born storyteller, and in Femina she is at the peak of her powers. This is bravura narrative history underpinned by passionate advocacy for the women whom medieval history has too often ignored or overlooked. Femina is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the Middle Ages and its place in the modern mind Dan Jones, bestselling author of The Plantagenets and Powers and Thrones Femina is an important addition to our understanding of a period still - mistakenly - thought to have excluded women from positions of power and significance. Femina skillfully brings out from the shadows the lives of women who ruled, fought, traded, created, and inspired Cat Jarman, bestselling author of River Kings: A New History of Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads The really wide variety of evidence cited - historical, material, archaeological, written, artistic, architecturalRamirez’s essay style of an introduction to each chapter’s subject by reference to a relatively contemporary event (for example the 1997 canonisation of the fourteenth century Jadwiga, “King” of the Poles in chapter 7), followed by an imaginative verbal recreation of an event in the individual’s life and then an exploration of their wider historical significance is a good approach. But it does become repetitive and underlines the discontinuity of the essays. The book’s thesis is that (some) women in the medieval world had more agency, influence, and power than the traditional historical narrative has led us to believe. It cites numerous examples of women (and groups of women) who prove this thesis - they held some kind of influential role in medieval society. The amount of male figures who simply wouldn't, or even didn't, accomplish what they've been credited without a woman's intervention for was ridiculous. It seems absurd that these powerful icons could just be forgotten.

Ramirez shows again and again that dark age Europe was a far more various place than we like to believe Dat uitgangspunt over de vrouwen in de geschiedenis en later ook even van andere minderheden, is dus prachtig. Anita fragte neulich, was in letzter Zeit Reinfälle bei Büchern bei uns waren. Ich habe mich sehr auf dieses Buch gefreut und mit großen Erwartungen gelesen, bin aber leider sehr enttäuscht worden.Generell hat das Buch leider keinen erkennbaren roten Faden: es handelt sich um eine Aneinandereihung von Biographien von Frauen und Essays über Personengruppen bzw . Kunstobjekten aus dem Mittelalter, was grundsätzlich ja ganz spannend sein kann. Jedoch ist die einzige Gemeinsamkeit das in irgendeiner Form Frauen beteiligt waren, und das war's auch schon. Über die Auswahl kann man definitiv streiten; ich hätte keine weiteren Ausführungen über Hildegard von Bingen gebraucht, über die gefühlt schon alles geschrieben worden ist. Der Texte über den Teppich von Bayeux war ebenfalls deplatziert, man erfährt nichts über die Frauen die den Teppich hergestellt haben (weil es dazu auch gar keine gesicherten Erkenntnisse gibt) - die Autorin gibt nur anekdotisch wieder, was auf dem Teppich zu sehen ist. Das Kapitel über die Katharer war völlig überflüssig, von Frauen war kaum die Rede und am Ende erzählt die Autorin krude Theorien von Nazis und dem Heiligen Gral, wobei sie mich völlig verloren hat. An der Stelle hatte ich kaum noch Motivation weiterzulesen.

Before her death, Æthelflæd ensured that her crown would go to her daughter, Ælfwynn – the only time rule passed from one woman to another in early medieval England. And yet, the Lady of the Mercians is little known. Ramirez writes that her brother Edward, who succeeded Alfred as king of Wessex, “actively suppressed her reputation” out of fear that her power might rival his, and removed Ælfwynn from the throne she had inherited. This is a thought provoking book, which is successful in that it has made me further question popular history books for the general reader, and it is well written and engaging. I’m dissatisfied to the extent that it is (hopefully) making a historically dated argument (I may be optimistic here!) and does so in a disjointed way. The Middle Ages are seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, saints and kings; a patriarchal society that oppressed and excluded women. But when we dig a little deeper into the truth, we can see that the “Dark” Ages were anything but.This book has done more for women’s history than almost any other. Rather than continuing to fetishise the murderer, Hallie presents the victims’ stories. By immersing readers in the social conditions the women experienced, the five have contexts other than being written off as “prostitutes”. This book has also affected the true crime genre, where more writers are focusing on victims rather than perpetrators. US author wins top French literary prize". France24. 6 November 2013. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013 . Retrieved 8 November 2013.