Warriors, Queens, and Intellectuals: 36 Great Women Before 1400

by Joyce E. Salisbury

Throughout history, women have played integral roles in family, society, religion, government, war - in short, in all aspects of human civilization. Powerful women have shaped laws, led rebellions, and played key roles in dynastic struggles. Some were caught up in forces beyond their control, while others manipulated and murdered their way to the top. However, unearthing their stories from the historical record has been a challenge, with the ordinary difficulties of preserving information across the generations increased by centuries of historical bias and gendered expectations. Women, when they were mentioned at all, often filled the role of virtuous maiden, self-effacing mother, or seductive villain. Imagine what you are missing when only half the story is being told.  

In Warriors, Queens, and Intellectuals: 36 Great Women Before 1400, taught by Professor Emerita of Humanistic Studies Joyce E. Salisbury, you will experience another side of history, one that has often been overlooked. In these 36 lectures, women step out from the footnotes and sidebars of traditional history and into the spotlight, illuminating the dark corners of the pre-modern world along the way. From thwarted daughters and ambitious wives to fearless revolutionaries and brilliant philosophers, you will see how women have played diverse roles throughout history and why their influence is so vital to a fuller understanding of the world we live in today. Beginning at the start of the Roman Empire and carrying you through to the end of the Middle Ages, Professor Salisbury will introduce you to dozens of influential women from all across the globe.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Historical, Feminism, Biography, The World

18 pages, Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Professor Emerita of Humanistic Studies (History)University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Reviews

[ToriBeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant anthology. Really recommend.

[Lisa Butterworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

so many fun stories here. Want to know how Mary (Jesus's mom) became a big deal? About the author of the first novel? Some of the first great librarians? The woman who brought Buddhism into China? Endlessly fascinating.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Professor Salisbury starts this lecture series by promising a variety of female figures from all over the world. This proved not to be true. Of the 36 lectures, only 6 (3 of the first 29) involved women outside of Europe and the Middle East (and of the handful of Middle East lectures, only two didn't involve the Roman Empire or Christian figures). Professor Salisbury showed a very strong western, pro Christian bias exhibited not only by the bizarre number of women picked specifically for their impact on the spread of Christianity, but also in the sometimes judgmental way she described non-Christian ideas and cultures. It should also be noted that Professor Salisbury arbitrarily decided to start her history with the Roman Empire despite millennia of recorded history around the world prior to that, and some of the most famous powerful woman that come readily to my mind living before that time. There was not a single story of a woman from Sub-Saharan Africa or the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Frankly, I first thought this was an older series recorded in the 1990s because it's so surprising to have a lecture series with such an obviously biased, limited perspective created in the last five years. Otherwise, the content of the lectures was generally fine, but I couldn't help rolling my eyes every time another Roman or Christian figure was introduced. It really hindered my ability to enjoy this lecture series or take it seriously as a representative history.

[Mary Anne]

4.75 STARS

How this book ended up on my TBR: The Great "Spend All the Audible Credits" Event. But also, I have been generally delighted by The Great Courses offerings, and this one sounded interesting.

I learned a lot in this audiobook. A concern that I had, heading into this book, was how much the lectures would center on Western civilization. There is a high percentage of representation here, no lies, but there were some entries for women in other locations. I suspect part of the omission might be due to the lack of texts. There is no shortage of information on Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hildegard, and Heloise. I enjoyed hearing passages concerning the Trung sisters in Vietnam, Zenobia, Hypatia, and Wu Zetian. I especially enjoyed learning about Aisha (one of the prophet Mohammed's wives), Freydis, Lady Murasaki, Licoricia, and Sorkhakhtani (one of the daughters-in-law of Genghis Khan). Now that I cast out some of the names, I'm actually much more impressed by the breadth of this series.

Not all of these women are well-regarded in current society. Lord knows Poppaea certainly is not. And yet, Dr. Salisbury doesn't argue for the goodness or morality of any one character. What I do appreciate is that she does mention why certain people might have made those interpretations. Regardless, they are women of note. I like that Dr. Salisbury mentions the majority of viewpoints of historians regarding these women. It's clear that she's drawing from her knowledge of available texts, and doing so somewhat limits the choice of characters, unfortunately. But she does mention her sources, especially when there are a variety of interpretations, or historians are mixed in their viewpoints, and she will address the likelihood of each option. I much enjoyed when she was able to describe physical structures and land marks, and when she shared her own experiences visiting them.

Some of the reviewers of this text did not like how frequently the women were associated with religion. I can understand the desire, but I also wholy understand that Dr. Salisbury was working with what she had. I expect that religion was significantly more important in some societies before 1400, and the area of religion was where most of them were able to make their mark and gain the attention of scribes. So I would hazard to say that Dr. Salisbury is working with the materials that are available to her, and while some folks might tire of hearing about religion so often, it was a significant force in the time periods she's referencing.

Dr. Salisbury herself is an engaging narrator. While there is no doubt a script she's working off of, her lecture is dynamic for listeners. I enjoyed her narration and would be interested to read and listen to more of her work.

--

PS. If you all ever go to The StoryGraph, let's be friends there! Here's my profile.

[Yaaresse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic.

This is my second Dr. Stansbury GC, and I'm looking forward to the next on. I've already queued up her history of Spain to listen to soon. I'm pretty sure her dynamic, yet natural and conversational, manner of storytelling could make the yellow pages sound interesting. I also love the way she points out with a sly sense of humor and a little verbal jab how women in history seldom got credit for their skills or deeds. I also appreciate that this course is not confined to Western European women. Greater Asia is well-represented. (Obviously, not a lot of records for the Americas pre-1400.)

As a bonus, never does this professor sound like she's reading a teleprompter, and she doesn't' do that annoying fake hand gesture thing so many of the newer GC lecturers do. She does indulge in a little more conjecture than I like, with the "she must have felt this or that" aside, but it doesn't distract from the lectures, and it should be obvious at this academic level how to tell her conjecture from hard facts.

As some reviewers have noted, a majority of the 36 women discussed had ties to religious activity or orders. Well, what do you expect? Men wrote the histories, so men controlled the narrative. Religious orders were one of the few places the allowed women to become highly literate or keep records. She's not saying these are the only impressive women in pre-1400s history, only that records exist that allow these women to be documented and studied in depth. As Dr. Stansbury explained in the early lectures, religious orders tended to keep the best records in that time, so you have to go where the proof is.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This course is a brief overview of thirty-six fascinating women in history. I knew of many of the women under discussion, but I also learned about some women I had never heard of before. The author does an excellent job of contextualizing each woman in her specific time and place. I have only one complaint about this course, which is that the title is incorrect. Since Joan of Arc was included, it really should have been “Great Women before 1450,” but this is a minor complaint, and overall, I enjoyed this a lot!

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting series, but I would have appreciated something other than religious history. The impression left from this is that women did a lot of things that had major implications for their time periods, but only because of or in the context of religion (almost always christianity, with the occasional jew, muslim, hindu, or buddhist thrown in). Out of 36 lectures, there perhaps 5 in which Salisbury did not spend the majority of the lecture talking about religion, religious issues, and religious views. It's possible that Salisbury chose to focus on these women because their lives happened to be well documented due to their closeness to religion (after all, most records throughout history were kept, maintained, and copied by religious houses), although we can't tell much about that because she does not provide any inkling of sources throughout the lectures. Where sources are mentioned, they are simply 'sources say' or 'sources tell us' without going into any detail. I don't mean that every sentence should be followed by a dissertation on where the information comes from, but saying 'sources such as ______ and ______' would be more helpful in orienting the listener and some commentary in the trustworthiness of the source itself would be helpful in judging its likely veracity. For example, it is well known that christian religious houses that kept and copied documents also made changes to ancient documents they copied, and that older texts can be problematic to take at face value in other ways. Yet Salisbury just accounts the information cited from presumably ancient documents blithely with no apparent hint that their content is patchy - especially for premedieval or non-European sources - and potentially disputed. For these reasons - unrelenting focus on religious figures almost to exclusion of anything else, unclear sources, and the apparent guileless acceptance of all sources at their word - I did not particularly enjoy this lecture series, will not recommend it to anyone, and will be returning it so I can spend my audible credit on something worthwhile.

[lacy white · Rating 3 out of 5]

Find this review and others like it at https://aravenclawlibraryx.wordpress.com

I am going to apologize for the lack of trigger warnings. I’m going to be honest, I totally forgot to take notes on this audiobook. It was 17 hours long and I listened to it while I played Overwatch so I didn’t exactly have time to write down every trigger warning that I heard. So, for the sake of this review, imagine every single awful thing that could possibly happen to a woman and I’m pretty sure it happened in this book.

Anyway, this is going to be brief because while I was tidying up my goodreads, I came across the realization that I never wrote a review on this audiobook. So that’s what I am doing now. Writing this review for an audiobook I don’t quite remember.

Okay, so this is about 36 different women throughout history that changed history. While I appreciated that this book was about women, if I’m being honest, it really wasn’t. Sure the women mentioned did great things but their accomplishments felt overshadowed by the men in their lives. The lecturer had to spend about 10 minutes of the chapter explaining the men in these women’s lives and what they did so the women could do greater things.

Overall, I did learn a lot. I wish it wasn’t so religious though. A lot of the women did great things in the name of religion and I honestly just don’t vibe with that. Kudos to them though. They changed history and it sucks we don’t learn more about them. However, I just don’t think this audiobook was right for me.

[Billie · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the positive end, the historical snapshots in this course are well researched and are linked together effectively to form a strong narrative. The author is compassionate but/and fair to her subjects.

On the negative end, the author has a weird habit of referring to predominantly Muslim civilizations as "the Muslims", reducing them to their religion, even when their religion isn't especially relevant to what she is talking about at the time. Thus at various times in the course Seljuks, Abbasids, Ummayads, and at least one Mongol tribe are all reduced to "the Muslims". She does not do this to predominantly Christian, Buddhist, or Confucian civilizations.

Also the selection of subjects is about 20% more Eurocentric than is warranted for the course.

[Bill Dauster · Rating 1 out of 5]

With no more evidence than a Roman woman's interest in Judaism and Jewish friends, Salisbury blames her, and by extension Jews, for provoking Emperor Nero to persecute Christians, thus exhibiting at best sloppy history. One might have thought that we had gotten beyond finding Jewish scapegoats for Roman cruelty.

[Goran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, but the focus on religious people and religious parts of many of these women is a real annoyance. At the same time, it's missing quite a few famous and far more relevant women, for example Aspasia or Artemisia.

[Kirsti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enthralling. Thirty-six lectures on influential women who were born before 1400. Some I was familiar with, and others were new to me. Here they are:

Julia, daughter of Caesar Augustus

Herodias, mother of Salome, who got John the Baptist beheaded

The Trung sisters of Vietnam, who fought the Han Chinese

Boudicca, the Celtic warrior queen who fought the Romans

Poppaea, wife of the emperor Nero and an enthusiastic persecutor of Christians

Plotina, advisor to Trajan, one of the "Five Good Emperors" of Rome

Vibia Perpetua, Christian martyr

Julia Maesa, member of the Severan dynasty and grandmother of Elagabalus, a transgender Syrian teenager whom she made emperor of Rome

Zenobia, Palmyran queen who battled the Romans

Helena, Serbian bar girl and mother of Constantine

Galla Placidia, kidnapped Roman princess who became advisor to the Visigoths

Hypatia, mathematician and philosopher torn apart by a Christian mob

Pulcheria, Eastern Roman empress and big fan of the Virgin Mary

Theodora, sex worker turned empress

Radegund, queen, survivor of domestic violence, and convent founder

Aisha bin Abi Bakr, warrior princess and favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad

Wu Zetian, lowborn courtier turned empress regnant

Kahina, warrior in northwest Africa who battled Muslims

Dhuoda, highly educated Carolingian author

Elfrida, ruler of the Anglo-Saxons

Freydis, traveler from Greenland to North America (twice) and sister of Leif Eriksson

Lubna of Córdoba, mathematician

Lady Murasaki (real name unknown), author of the first novel

Anna, Byzantine princess and bringer of Christianity to Russia

Anna Comnena, historian of the First Crusade

Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen and participant in the Second Crusade

Marie of Champagne, patron of Chretien de Troyes

Heloise, lover of Abelard and influential thinker in her own right

Hildegarde, author of textbooks on medicine

Razia, first and only female sultan

Sorkhakhtani, administrator of the Mongol Empire

Licoricia, Jewish merchant and advisor to an English king

Abutsu, developer of the Way of Poetry

Brigitta, Christian mystic, advisor to the pope, and founder of an order of nuns that still exists

Joan of Arc, country girl who led the armies of France

Christine of Pisan, considered the first professional writer (male or female)

I found this on Kanopy, one of the streaming services that my library offers.

Right now it's only 40 bucks on closeout if you're interested in buying your own copy: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/cours...

[Kemp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book a fantastic companion to Daileader’s, The Early Middle Ages as Salisbury covers much of the same time period – while focusing on influential woman. Comparing and contrasting what both authors say about particular leaders was fun and kept me engaged as I switched back and forth between these two books.

Salisbury is a bit dry and monotonal so you’ve got to listen past that and focus on what she’s describing. Maybe the printed word would have been better but I had the audiobook.

What this shows, and Salisbury acknowledges, is that women throughout history have played significant roles both on their own and in support of ruling husband. History gives these women short shrift so I enjoyed hearing about these 36 women. Comparing these two books, I’m reminded that history is written by the winners but, in this case, by the authors perspective.

Where Daileader only talks about Europe, Salisbury covers the world from the Trang sisters in Vietnam and Empress Wu Zetein in China to Persian queens like Parysatis. I liked the broader view Salisbury took and rate this higher in content but not in delivery.

[Debbie Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

This audiobook includes 36 lectures following notable women from 0AD to 1200AD. There are some female rulers in the form of Queens and Empresses but mostly these lectures show how women influenced the men around them, from their partners to their sons. As well as learning about the role of women during this time, you also learn about politics, gender roles, rules of society and religion. The formation of Christianity and Islam features heavily and it is interesting to see the development from polytheism to monotheism.

These lectures give an insight into the lives of women during these times, which is not easy due to the lack of records around women. It helps to make sense of the roots of misogyny and why it was necessary for men to subjugate women and suppress their sexuality.

My favourite lectures included: the author Murasaki Shikibu who is credited with writing the first novel, The Tale of Genji; the Trung Sisters of Vietnam; Boudicca leading the fight against the Romans; the story of Hypatia, an influential intellectual; and the role of Aisha, Mohammed’s wife, in shaping Islam.

I listened to one or two lectures a day and did some extra reading around the figures I was most interested in. This has sparked an interest to read more into the history of women.

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salisbury takes the reader through the time period between the 1st and 15th centuries CE and shares the lives and works of 36 fascinating women that shaped world history in everything from religious thought and literature to national boundaries and the longevity of empires. In each lecture she gives the reader the context for the power these women hold, either as a normal and recognized part of their culture or as an exception acquiesced at by the strength of the woman’s personality and talent. She similarly notes the more than occasional efforts by later generations to try to erase some of these women from history or to immediately roll back the rights won by them after their death. She gives each woman’s life and work both in the context in which her contribution was made as well as the legacies that can still be observed today. As a whole, Salisbury’s selection allows for a greater understanding of the currents of thought that would help shape the modern world as well as a vindication for the often overlooked role of women in history.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warriors, Queens, and Intellectual was on my TBR for a while! The length, even at 2.25x speed, was a little daunting! But as the new year began, it seemed like a perfect time to dive in!

Warriors, Queens, and Intellectual's showcases women from Europe and Asia in premodern society who have left their mark upon the world through religion, writing and ruling.


In this audiobook lecture, there was a solid mix of women who I had heard of, and women who I had not. Unfortunately even those who I knew, I did not know much about. I felt like this book gave a great level of detail for each person. It is enough to provide me with solid information on the woman's life and accomplishments,  but also left enough information uncovered that If I picked up a biography of a person, I could learn more.

The lecturer provided great sources for her details, and I feel confident I could look up the legacy for these woman quite easily.

I really enjoyed this book! It was very dense, and did take a while, but it was well worth it

[Bennett Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Suffers from some painful eurocentrism, too much Roman empire and early Catholicism for me, I think it would've been better served branching out a bit more. We only saw the Americas through the lens of a Viking, which was great, maybe it is that these really are all the most interesting/impactful examples, but I have to imagine there were others on interest. The lecture on Herod's wife I found to be underwhelming, it just seemed like paraphrasing some New Testament verses, in a way that didn't add much if you knew about her already. Towards the end Salisbury starts tying some of their influences together to paint a broader picture, if that's what she was trying to do, I'd wish it all went in succession for that part and we were told this more up front in these lectures.

That being said, enough interesting lectures and frankly wild stories from history to make it worth listening to.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew of some of these tales, others partially, and some were brand new that I had no idea were such influential women!
Men and women will both enjoy this.
I never knew how significant Mohammed 's wife Aisha was after his death. Nor the Battle of the Camel.
There are 36 tales stemming from before Christ to after up to the 15th century.
From other readings I knew of the warriors, but most of the Intellectuals such as the poet from Japan I had never heard of. Each tale is about 30 minutes.
Despite all the math I have taken, I never heard that algebra the word comes from Arabic meaning The Reunion of Broken Parts. And that Arabic numbers are actually from India and developed more by others and taught by a woman too in the Iberian Peninsula where Islam was prevalent.
Thoroughly enjoyable. Some of the tales may not be as adventurous as Bodiccea or Zenobia, but educationally so yes!

[Julie Bouchonville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well this was a truly amazing book ! The tone is clear, interesting and accessible. The material is just deep enough to keep you coming for more while giving a clear picture. The women chosen for the portraits are diverse, fascinating and representative of specific circumstances.

(It has been brought to my attention they could have been way _more_ diverse by featuring more people from asia, the americas, or sub-saharan africa. This reflexion didnt come to me naturally as i was already pleased of learning about women from the middle-east, northern africa and even Vietnam, but I understand im too used to older, whiter academicals who somply dont do enough.
Let it be said it could have been more diverse.)

I learned a ton of stuff and took notes to read more books on at least ten different subjects. Thank you so much to the author for such a great work!

[♏Vanessa♏ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book that gives us insight on some of the most prominent women in ancient world. Some of their stories is revolting, others infuriating, but all in all all of them are owe inspiring. It's a real shame we don't hear more about influential women and the many struggles and hurdles they had to endure in order to accomplish all they have done.
I've not heard of many of these women here and it was very interesting to learn about their lives, how society was at the time where they lived ( as this book gives examples around the world), and the things they influenced and/or changed, as well as the impact it had in society, at the time.
Great narration too.

[Tinika · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Great Courses title is, for the most part, fascinating; however, I feel a bit strange commenting on it here as it is more video than book. Yes, there is a book that accompanies the lecture series but it is bare bones in comparison. Dr. Salisbury gives plenty of background into the world each of these 36 women inhabited but, because so little is known about some of them, it becomes primarily background and conjecture. Some of the women are still quite well-known despite male bias in history writing but many were completely new to me and, I am sure, will be to many other reader / listeners.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this lecture series and really enjoyed it. It probably won’t remember most of it; college days are long gone for me. Still this is a good compilation of notable women through the 14th century in Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa. Of course most women’s lives went by with out note in those centuries. Still, from those for whom some sources exist, Joyce Salisbury presents 36 interesting women and in addition makes observations about the times in which they lived. I am glad I listened to this audiobook.

[Finley Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learning about women I'd never heard of before was a treat and an eye-opener. Some of the themes and processes were repetitive, but I'm sure that seemed more frustrating to the women whose experiences the lecture depicted than my reading about them. Still, the benefits of learning about the women from a diverse array of backgrounds that my American education never mentioned or taught without nuance are incalculable. I recommend this lecture highly.

[G. Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, could not recommend highly enough! Easily my favorite of the great courses books I have listened to on Audible so far. Many women here I knew of, but now know more, and some I had never heard of, but will be reading more about! Sad that I should have heard about all these women in school, I think, because we were taught about the men in these same stories and these remarkable women got left out. Thank goodness for learning as an adult!

[Kate Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I streamed this Great Course on Kanopy. Dr. Salisbury has pulled together an amazing amount of research to tell the stories of these women from many different countries and time periods. All but a few were new to me. This course should be really inspiring to girls, to show them what talented, resilient women can accomplish even in societies that discriminated heavily against them.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting historical stories, worth the listen. It is heavy on the Christian and European angles, though its purpose is to show figures of power and influence, and it is difficult to separate that from religion wherever you go. More ties and recurring themes among the lectures would have been welcome. These are profiles rather than any sort of in-depth study of messages or themes.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I'm generally not interested in history, I enjoyed this audiobook. It's history from a different perspective (36 great women before 1400), so it wasn't the usual war and conquest history I remembered from high school. It's also convenient that each chapter is a bite-size amount of information.

[Danica is Booked · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one. Some essays were more enjoyable than others. This is a fairly surface-level dive into 36 women. I think I would have liked longer dives into fewer women, but I learned a lot about women I didn't know and saw some familiar faces.

This was also truly a deep dive into women throughout the world, which was refreshing. I enjoyed it.

[Ragne · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were quite a few I hadn't heard of before, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.
However, there's often few sources to get the full story or to fact check. In some cases, she seems to lean quite heavily on the bible and biblical archaeology, which is rather dubious at best. In other cases, she discusses the verity and reliability of the written sources, but not the Bible.

[Giselle · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF'd 30% I'm linking the review of another person on goodreads who expressed exactly how I was feeling. I should have read it before buying this. I have no desire to continue.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...