The Encyclopedia of Amazons

by Jessica Amanda Salmonson

Book Overview

Amazons, gladiators, martial nuns, maenads, warrior queens, pirates, guerrillas, furies, and avenging goddesses -- the fighting women who populate the pages of this fabulous encyclopedia marched... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385423667
• ISBN13: 9780385423663
• Release Date: July 1992
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Herstory kicks down the door!

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!!!

Great read but some historical flaws

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 stunning revelation of history's missing links . . .

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!

Warning: This Book Can Rearrange Your World View

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.