When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt

Like a bad History Channel show, this book panders to the sensationalist, tabloid mindset audience. Prof Cooney is far too fond of conspiracies within the royal court and hyping the role of the harem as sexual stimulation for the king. She constantly presents her conjectures as established facts; and while it is almost impossible to know the thoughts and mindset of people so far removed from the present, Prof Cooney repeatedly makes statements about what these ancient people thought. For example, she refers to the early Dynastic era court of Merneith as "bloodthirsty", and claims that royal males were sacrificed after the new Pharaoh was chosen - despite no concrete proof whatsoever that any of the male human sacrifices were of royal blood.It would take far too long to list all the items in this book that hit the wrong note with me - and there were quite a lot of them! - but I feel a need to mention a few of the more egregious. The reign of Hatshepsut and the Amarna Period are my own areas of special interest, and therefore rang the most false. That a ruler as evidently competent as Hatshepsut had to "buy off" the officials of the court and temple in order to remain in power is frankly insulting. And claiming that she was "lost to cultural memory" when girls of later generations were named Maatkare - her kingly throne name, NOT her personal name - overlooks the evidence to the contrary. Thutmose IV - the grandson of Thutmose III, who destroyed many of her monuments - held her in such high regard that he added his own name to an offering bowl she had dedicated where there was room, instead of removing hers, even adding the respectful title of Osiris to her name.And then there are the blatant math errors in the chapter on Nefertiti! Prof Cooney states that Akhenaten was 30 when he became king and married the teenage Nefertiti. She then claims that Tutankhamon was the son of Akhenaten by one of Nefertiti's daughters. Most of those girls were nowhere near childbearing age by the end of the reign; while the eldest could have been, there was not enough time for her to have borne a child and for that child to have been as old as Tutankhamon was when he became king.The constant emphasis on conspiracies and politicking within the court and the sexual role of the harem in each and every chapter gets old fast. Please avoid damage to your professional reputation and go back to your work on coffins, Kara.

I'm sad that this book was disappointing. I had pre-ordered on Amazon because I enjoyed Kara's book on Hatshepsut and I was hoping there would a lengthy chapter on Nefertiti with all of the current research on her. Additionally, I loved the episodes when she was on the podcast, Eric's Guide to Ancient Egypt (which I hope returns soon!!!).Negatives:I'm one of those people that hate the "perhaps, could have, might be" type of fill ins in non-fiction books. I know that a certain amount is necessary but after a bit I felt that there was to much of that in this book.I understand that book was giving a feminist take on Egyptian rule, but it just seemed that after awhile the author went overboard and started man-bashing. It was like she objected to patriarchy, but to get her point across she took shots at "typical" male ways of thinking and ruling that are not as good as female ways, and so sounded misandrist instead. She indulged in what she disliked so much.Also, not all of her examples of modern women and how they are not taken as seriously or treated as fairly as men worked. That's okay. But there is a certain American politician that was brought up several times as an example of a woman treated unfairly. There are some of us women who just don't like this politician, not because she's a strong woman but because of some of her wrong doing. And yes, I don't like it when men do that either. This politician's gender did not enter into whether I liked he or not, I hope for an truthful, strong woman to come along that I can embrace. I hope to vote for her some day. Sooner rather than later, I hope.Lastly, the title could have been reworked. The women in this book didn't rule even their own known world, only Egypt.Positives:I knew next to nothing of Merneith or Neferusobek, and now I find that I need to learn more, what little there is to learn. Even Tawoseret. I'm looking forward to digging into the footnotes and ordering some of the material there.Footnotes!!! I love good footnotes. Thank you for providing so many. Now of only there had been a map or genealogy. But, the author explained what the name meant, especially throne names, and how they reflected what the ruler hoped to accomplish. Extra thank you!!I know Nefertiti has been done to death, and I think I've read everything I can find on her, but somehow I never realized that there were 3 schools of thought on her (American, British and French? German?). That kind of helped me to mentally organize all the different theories on her. I wish someone would write a book with all three theories in one book, divided by school of thought. How convenient that would be to have it all in one spot. I'm uncertain which could be the correct theory, of if there is one not yet considered, but it makes for interesting reading. Every Amarnaphile seems to have their favorite theory, but I bounce around.Cleopatra. She gets a little boring, but I actually enjoyed this author's take on her. Never realized before how much the Roman version of history had colored my thinking. AND, I never realized just how inevitable her ending was.

I work long shifts, and rather than listen to the radio, I listen to audio books. After listening to the superlative Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean, by Charles Freeman and The Story of Egypt - The Civilization that Shaped the World by Joann Fletcher, I thought I'd give this one a listen, as I find the story of the woman in the ancient world just as fascinating.However, I was only five minutes into listening, and Hilary Clinton was mentioned no less than three times (although the Joann Fletcher book manged to shoehorn the term 'Suffragettes' twice, in a book about ancient Egypt, I still enjoyed it). I have only managed to endure the first two chapters of this book, but it is a painful experience, the author (who is also the narrator) is clearly a 'Feminist Activist' who paints the world as 'All Woman Good, All Men Bad', patriarchy this, patriarchy that. Honestly, it's like listening to a left wing student demo chanting at times.Clearly, I am no woman hater (am married to one and bought this audio book knowing full well the subject was about females and written/narrated by the female author), but I do expect a little less personal ideology/politics and a modicum of balance in such work. This was so painful to listen to that I decided to re-listen to the Charles Freemen work instead, and delete this and treat it as a very bad buy.

Excellent book. Well written and fascinating!

Num grande manifesto pela igualdade, Kara Cooney discorre sobre a vida de seis rainhas que ocuparam o trono egípcio ao longo dos 3000 anos de História do Antigo Egito. Fosse como regentes para filhos pequenos, fosse assumindo para si o reinado inicialmente em nome de enteados, fosse por direito próprio, essas seis mulheres foram aceitas no mais alto cargo de uma sociedade extremamente aristocrática porque, segundo Cooney, ofereciam segurança política e, consequentemente, estabilidade social e econômica diante de situações de grande incerteza. Mulheres governando asseguraram transição sem sobressaltos ou guerra civil rumo ao faraó seguinte. Exceto, talvez, no caso da mais famosa delas, Cleópatra. O último dia monarcas egípcios que não pode contornar o poderio de Otaviano.

Fascinating look into royal life in Egypt. Would be good for use in high school Ancient History classes

Some histories could have been developed