Unquiet Women: From the Dusk of the Roman Empire to the Dawn of the Enlightenment

by Max Adams

Unquiet Women is an exquisitely crafted patchwork of the forgotten lives of some of the most remarkable women in history.

Wynflæd was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who owned male slaves and badger-skin gowns; Egeria a Gaulish nun who toured the Holy Land as the Roman Empire was collapsing; Gudrid an Icelandic explorer and the first woman to give birth to a European child on American soil; Mary Astell a philosopher who out-thought John Locke.

In this exploration of the lives of women living between the last days of Rome and the Enlightenment, Max Adams triumphantly overturns the idea that women of this period were either queens, nuns, or invisible. A kaleidoscopic study of women's creativity, intellect and influence, Unquiet Women brings to life the experiences of women whose stories are all too rarely told. Thanks to its author's rigorous work of rescue and recovery, their voices can be heard across the centuries—still passionate and still strong.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Historical, Feminism, Womens, Medieval

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

I am an archaeologist, woodsman and traveller. I live in the North-east of England where I write about landscape and history. My next non-fiction work, to be published in Autumn 2017, is called Alfred's Britain - a history and archaeology of the British Isles in the Viking Age. The King in the North has been a non-fiction bestseller since its publication. In the Land of Giants, my latest non-fiction book, is a series of journeys, mostly on foot, through Dark Age landscapes.

In May 2016 I published my first novel, The Ambulist.

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

'When told that "it did not become a woman to be learned, as so few are", she [Christine de Pizan] replied that "it did not become a man to be so ignorant, as so many are" '

This tapestry of women's lives weaves together stories from the fall of Rome through to the C17th century, taking an inclusive look across geographical space to how women have always spoken up, educated themselves, argued, debated and taken up public space and social roles. Not all the women have well-documented lives and, even when they do (e.g. Eloise) Adams goes for outline rather than detail. The impact is in the number and variety of female lives collected here.

Interestingly, Adams' bibliography is strong on 'popular' books and websites making this accessible to the layperson, with only occasional articles from academic journals. Lively, entertaining but with serious feminist undertones, this is an excellent introduction to the legacy and traditions of female participation and interventions in social cultures.

Thanks to Head of Zeus for an ARC via NetGalley.

[Valentina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/ it’s good! The detail and obvious research shines through but there is something (to me) about a man writing women’s history that I don’t enjoy. To be fair I didn’t research the author before I bought it; I’m a sucker for a pretty cover and a book about women’s history so it seemed like the type of book I love. Still the masculinity of Adam’s is present and to me that diminishes the book. It’s good but there’s better out there.

[Karen Mace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a thoroughly captivating look at some of the forgotten women of history, throughout the ages.

The achievements of many were only really appreciated long after their deaths, and this book does a wonderful job of bringing their names and contributions back to life and to a wider audience.

When I read books like this it makes me mad that I never really appreciated history when I was back at school! I think all I can remember being taught about was about The Tudors, so to read these stories of such remarkable women from around the world, and from wide backgrounds had me enthralled and interested in searching out more about these women. So much has been learnt about them from archeological digs and that was another fascinating aspect of these stories. How important discoveries had been made over the years and how many interesting items had been buried alongside seemingly normal women, but through these objects it was made clear that they were highly respected at the time of their deaths.

There is a great range of subjects discussed, from impacts that women had on certain periods in time, the battles and barriers they faced while they were alive and how their determination saw them achieve their aims - even if it was only appreciated at much later times!

Highly recommend this as a wonderful read for women, and men!, of all ages - and the stunning cover just adds to the enjoyment!

[Paula Corker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but not an easy bedtime read. At times it felt more like a text book. Inspired to learn more about some of the women.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting
offered new insights and I liked the structure of the book

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each story left me wanting more. I like the idea behind it, but with each short sketch it seemed the author could not keep his bias out of the way.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a neat little collection looking at the lives of women throughout history. It's not exhaustive, but it is revealing, offering a voice to perspectives that have too often been silenced both in history and study of the historical record.

I liked this book best when it was offering close readings of historical artifacts and documents, with a nice heaping side of commentary/speculation. I liked it least when it jumped to simplistic conclusions and made hasty assumptions, which was, unfortunately, a little too often for my liking.

One example that comes to mind is its characterization of the myth of the Cáin Adomnáin as representing a form of proto-women's rights. This fictionalized account of actual Irish laws established women as a protected noncombatant class in wars, with a stated rationale of shielding mothers from the danger of the battlefield, while also barring them from fighting in wars as they did before. Yet, the book still acts as if this is a marked improvement from women's lives being valued for their "reproductive energies" under tribal law.

Last time I checked those are exactly the same thing?

I think it's more accurate to call the Cáin Adomnáin humanitarian, or a prototype of the Geneva Convention, but the book twists its interpretation of it to try to read more "feminist" thought into it than is accurate. It certainly IS a law (or at least a fictionalized account of prior laws), pertains to women, and says their lives have meaning and should be protected. However, the way it goes about establishing that is by defining women as solely valuable for their reproductive capacity and limiting what they are legally allowed to do, even while it defends them.

Unfortunately, there are several times throughout the text where this sort of 'flattening' of the actual history happens. I think so many of these stories speak for themselves, and it's enough to focus on women's voices, stories, and circumstances without attempting embellish them or make them more 'progressive' than they were, or pretend that women had more freedom than they did.

Still, this is an interesting text with very unique selections, I hadn't heard of most of the figures highlighted, and learned quite a bit while reading. While the writing is sometimes dry, when the author's voice comes through it is insightful and witty. Despite its faults, I'd still recommend it if the topic interests you, at least as a starting off point for further research.

Favorite Quote From Another Book In This Book
"Time in its irresistible and ceaseless flow carries along on its flood all created things, and drowns them in the depths of obscurity" -Anna Comnena

[Stephanie (Bookfever) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw Unquiet Women at the bookstore I knew it would be just my kinda read. I love reading books about historical figures, especially women, that aren't very widely known and I wasn't disappointed with this one. I knew about some of the women that were featured but the majority of them were new to even me so I loved that.

Some women had shorter or longer chapter than others, depending on how much is known about them but the chapters weren't so short or so long that you couldn't get invested or that you got bored by them. Although I couldn't help but wish that some were a tad bit longer. Some of the women in this book we don't even know the names like the Roman woman found in the Spitalfields sarcophagus or the women from the Oseberg ship burial for example. Those were always really fascinating to me.

My favorite chapters included Hypatia of Alexandria, the Trumpington Bed Burial, Æthelflæd, Seeresses and Cunning-Women, Héloïse and Abélard, Margery Kempe, Queen Njinga of Ndongo and Three Faces of Artemisia Gentilseschi. The latter one ended up as my very favorite chapter. Artemisia Gentilseschi was such a remarkable woman and artist. I never get sick of reading and learning more about her life. I'm really glad the author included her.

Overall, Unquiet Women by Max Adams put the spotlight on the compelling but often forgotten women from history, going from the late Roman Empire to the Age of Enlightenment and who's influence we can still feel to this day. The Herald called it an important book and I can't help but highly agree.

[Melisende]

I read this one a couple of days before Pamela Toler's "Women Warriors" - and to be perfectly honest, I feel like cutting and pasting my review of that book here.

A " ... crafted patchwork of the forgotten lives of some of the most remarkable women in history ..." - only if this is not your area of interest. If it is, then this is merely a collection of things of interest to the author and organised in some sort of chapter according to their subject matter. To me personally, it reminded me of a blog that has been published as a book - some random biographies presented with archaeological discoveries and local histories to add some additional flavour.

Again, as with Toler's book, I have covered off over half of the content in my own blog and have read the very same biographies and internet articles (as I assume anyone with the remotest interest in this area would have also).

Quote: Unquiet Women brings to life the experiences of women whose voices are barely heard and whose stories are rarely told. - sorry, but the last have dozen years (if not last decade) has seen a considerable surge in this type of research, with numerous books, blogs, articles, etc, giving voice to any number of "invisible women" that you could practically trip over it with every corner turned.

Another no star rating here - I was rather bored, having a constant sense of deja vu the more I read.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The little known lives of strong women between the Romans and the Enlightenment. It's too easy to make a general statement that women have been left out of history, but it is usually necessary to dig a little to find them unless they are rich and famous. This book takes an opportunity to look directly at women's stories which do exist but which aren't widely known, without claiming to cover a specific tome or group. A nice range of backgrounds and context. Worth reading.

[Mab · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of fascinating women, written about carefully and with intrigue. The book meanders a little, and Adams' characteristic density of prose rears its head sometimes, but I like the density and chewiness so it's an enjoyable read.

[L A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to Head of Zeus and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

I was SO excited to read this book when I initially read the blurb for it, but unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The concept itself is compelling: forgotten voices from women throughout History, but it doesn’t quite meet its aim. I had hoped for something similar to the women’s stories featured on the badassoftheweek.com series.

The author is clearly very knowledgeable, and I enjoyed the parts where he talked about his professional experiences and was able to flesh out some of the details. The book itself would work really well as a book to dip in and out of, perhaps reading a few of the accounts at a time. They are short enough for this to be possible. It doesn’t flow very well for longer periods of reading in my opinion as the women tended to blur together in my mind.

As an ex Social Studies teacher, I understand completely how difficult it can be to uncover meaningful evidence of women’s lives during certain periods of History. This book tries to bring life to some of these women, but the information given is often just too vague or tenuous to really get your teeth into. Just as things start to get interesting, it’s time to move onto the next woman. It might have made more sense to provide longer accounts of the more well-known women or those who have more information and evidence available than lots of short little ditties about random Anglo-Saxon noblewomen and weaving (so much weaving….).

Parts of the book reminded me of those moments in a job interview when the interviewer asks you a question and you just try to ramble a bit and hope it sticks. The featured women are largely from Western and Northern Europe which is unfortunate as the few pieces there are about the non-Western women are some of the more interesting in the book.

Overall, I did enjoy parts of this book but it didn’t grab my interest the way I had hoped it would.

[Asha - A Cat, A Book, And A Cup Of Tea · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting premise with a slightly dry execution. I'm always eager to learn tidbits of history about people you don't normally hear about, so I enjoyed the wide range of women discussed in this book - there are figures from all walks of life and professions, across a large time period.

Each of the women discussed sounds fascinating, but I didn't feel that this book really gave very much information about some of them, and the biographies are rather simplistic, listing events and achievements in the manner of a Wikipedia article, rather than attempting to comment on any deeper meaning in these women's actions or writings. It will form a good jumping-off point for further research, and would make a lovely gift for the casual reader, as long as the reader is aware that it doesn't have very much depth. It's a "dip in" book, rather than one to read straight through. However, it's not set out like a coffee table book, but as a historical narrative - I think it just falls uncomfortably between the two. Not light or tight enough for a gift book, not deep or researched enough for a history book.

I also think it's rather unfortunate in general that a book that is supposed to celebrate female achievements is written by a male author, who makes the usual generalisations about the meaning of marriage and motherhood and female sexuality. A touch of sensitivity reading or indeed, passing the idea to a female author, would have made such a difference to the nuance of the text.

[Cath Senker · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s no easy task to explore the lives of a variety of women ‘from the dusk of the Roman Empire to the Dawn of the Enlightenment and find a thread that unites them. But Max Adams has done an excellent job of finding the thread of restlessness and curiosity common to all and weaving it through his historical narrative.

Max’s background as an archaeologist has served him well as he unravels the stories of women in ancient times who were not able to tell it for themselves – from the textiles, spindles and other grave goods they were buried with. Others told their tale but it was lost; Egeria, a 4th-century Christian pilgrim, boldly set off alone from Gaul or Galicia on a 3,000-mile trail to reach the Holy Land, writing a detailed account of her travels that was not uncovered until the 19th century and remains little known today.

Unquiet Women contains stories garnered from across the globe, including impressive female rulers. Queen Njinga came to power in the early 1600s in what is now Angola, although her enemies declared her illegitimate and allied with the Portuguese colonists to try to dethrone her. Yet through a combination of diplomacy and war – leading her own warriors into battle – the queen was able to consolidate her position.

Countless other women played crucial roles in their society but with little recognition – we hear of cunning-women (practitioners of folk medicine) and peace-weavers, who were married to enemy groups to establish peace between them.

This rich tapestry of women’s lives successfully demonstrates that women before the 18th century were not only ‘queens, nuns or invisible’ and Max’s inimitable prose, full of light-hearted observations and humour, make it a delight to read.

[Reilly Windsor-Daly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a struggle.

I love the premise, learning about unknown women throughout history is what inspired me to read the book. However, there are too many women mentioned with very little context so they all blur into one. It is roughly works out to one womens life stoty to about 6 pages, which was not enough time to develop the characteristics of the women being discussed to engage me as a reader; and as I did not develop an emotional attachment I did not remember the women nor was I inspired to research them further.

Adams clearly is an intelligent person, the book is a compilation of women he feels go against the stereoype of their time, but he is not engaging in the way he tells the story. He focuses less on the woman herself and more what sorrounded her, and mapping milestones in her life, noting continually how she was useful for other historians, alll of which make the narrative dry and in places my mind wandered off.

I think I was hoping for a better uderstanding than I got.

[Marlies · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written and engaging collection of short biographies of various women. Not only of famous women, but also of unknown women, from all over the globe. Adams is an excellent storyteller and makes good use of quotes from original sources. The use of footnotes and literary puns lightens the subject matter. It was a delight to read.

Some small adjustments would have made it more readable; despite her accessible way of writing, Adams does tend to use words that are not ready vocabulary. A footnote with a short explanation would have been useful.

More useful would have been notes referring to the illustrations. Several times the author refers to an artwork by Judy Chicago. Some information on this artwork and why it is important to the story being told would have been a good addition.
And especially in more convoluted family arrangements a family tree would have made the relations between generations with identical or similar names much clearer.

[Darci Morosko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book and while I found it a quick read there parts of it that I pushed through because it felt like reading the notes of a rambling professor. There are glimpses into some really interesting women...but as historical writings about medieval (or earlier) women are hard to find these are left to just tiny snapshots of lives lived. I almost wish the author had chosen just a handful of women to focus on and to write about the time periods they lived in to fully flesh them out as best as could be done rather than scattershot glimpses of women from throughout history. So I’m giving 3 stars for this book and the concept of it — and hoping that this author, and many others, continue writing books about women in history!

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved it on the one hand for the way it was a constellation of little lights of women’s souls shining out from the darkness of history, the stories told are fascinating and engaging and I wanted to go off and look up biographies to find out more about all of them.

Sometimes the tone was spot on respectful, detailed and nuanced but there were a lot of times when broad sweeping generalisations were made about the lot of women (meanings of childbirth, healing, friendship, love, widowhood and place in society) that were very much described from the view of men - and it made me long for a woman to have told these stories, or at least co-authored it.

Still, lovely book to dip in and out of and also, the cover is just 👌👌

[Lucy Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this book, even though it took me a long time to read! there is such a variety of women, and i feel like because the author is an archeologies you genuinely do get to learn about a lot of women you’ve never heard of before, rather than some other books that speak about the same women repeatedly. the author approached difficult topics sensitively and really took the time to consider the social reasonings behind a lot of things. he also didn’t make out every woman to be perfect, meaning we learnt about their flaws and got a multifaceted profile which was so interesting. i would really recommend if you’re into women’s medieval history, though it is very content heavy which should be considered! a v interesting read!

[Katy]

DNF @ 100 pages

I really wanted to like this but it just did not work for me. The subject matter is definitely interesting and I admire the intention to focus on these lesser-known women. However, I found the writing style very wordy and dense, quite hard to follow. I was actually familiar with some of the women and histories under discussion and I still found it hard to read at points. I felt like the author was assuming a lot of prior knowledge on some topics and, to be honest, some of the wordiness felt really unnecessary.

This didn't feel very accessible to me, even as someone who is very well-read on history. A shame, but I just couldn't read any more of it. I found it frustrating and a little dry.

[Adryon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning about women in history I hadn't heard of before, from a broad range of professions and callings--scientists, midwives, saints (and pilgrims and abbesses and other religious women), writers, painters. This is a very broad sampling of predominantly European (and disproportionately English) women from Roman times to just before the Enlightenment.

However, the format of the book occasionally made this a bit of a slog--jumping geographically and through time periods can make it feel very fractured and there wasn't much momentum or continuity. I found it hard to stay engaged; this was much more of a 'pick it up and read one biography at a time' kind of read.

[Annabelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

based on the theme, i thought i was really going to enjoy this book. however, the overall execution let me down. i had never heard of the majority of the women mentioned in this book, so getting introduced to them was interesting. however, the style of writing was often tough to slog through, so i had to keep putting it down and coming back to it. the women in the first two chapters in particular all seem to blend together, meaning none of them made a particularly lasting impression on me. i was also confused by the fact that the author would often come to conclusions about aspects of these women's lives without showing any sources to support his arguments.

[Meri · Rating 1 out of 5]

[1.5]

A brief - although tediously written - account of women from the early Middle-Ages through to Enlightenment. The book does suffer from a heavy Western bias. If you're looking for accounts from the east, forget about it. There was one exploration into the lives of Empress Wu Zhao (to cover Asia) and Queen Njinga of Ndongo (to cover Africa). The complete lack of South Asian representation is disappointing, but unsurprising. Quite ironic when the book is titled "Unquiet Women" *sigh*. Personally, I could have seen far less of Anglo-Saxon wills (I did not care for the long discussion on textiles) and far more of the women themselves.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating journey of discovery, as the publisher promises! Max Adams brings to life a tapestry of the lives and accomplishments of extraordinary (and ordinary) women who have been overlooked in the countless books of history that have been published. I had heard of Boadicea, Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitaine and other significant women rulers, scientists, artists, etc. But here, the author draws to our attention, the varied voices and experiences of women living between the last days of Rome and the Enlightenment, reminding us that women's influence throughout history has always been far more important than historians have lead us to believe.

[Bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a very well researched book, and I appreciate the authors effort in giving many women a voice inside these pages. I have read this book in one session, but would not recommend that, because it makes remembering all the different characters hardly possible. If you want to read ‘Unquiet Women’ I would suggest to do so every now and then, so that some reoccuring topics dont get boring, because they really aren’t. I can defenitely recommend this for people who have at least a basic level of history knowledge, or geography of England, so that it doesnt get confusing for you.

[Anne Herbison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book added to my knowledge of women who have been left out of history and who I had read about in Femina by Janina Ramirez. Some of the same women appear in Adams' book and others as well who are only known through fragments of evidence, such as their will. Such fragments reveal a lot about the women's lives and what they valued - items such as clothing passed on shows how important weaving cloth was and I learned about weaving conducted on a large scale which was largely the work of women. Adams' book also looks at women in South America and Africa whose stories have come to light.

[Naomi Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my goodness... This was SO hard to get through. If I wasn't challenging myself it would have hit the dnf pile within the first couple of pages of the introduction.

I appreciate that Max likes women and wants to value them, however, his writing style reads more like a dissertation and takes most of the joy out of learning about these interesting women.

If you are going to give it a try, I recommend grabbing a dictionary and a couple of maps (the older the better!) and giving yourself time to read one story at a time... Because the writing only lets you absorb one story at a time.

[Dania F · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of lufe excerpts of different impressive and groundbreaking women through the ages. The author looks at very unknown women who in some way or other were different, broke with convention and tradition and who left different legacies for us to read about. While I appreciate thw shortness of the book and the brief glances at the different women, the writing was just a tad too academic for my personal taste.

[Betsy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only good thing I can say about this book is that it smells really nice.

Max, why are you writing dry descriptions like those needed for a dictionary? Less is more, but we want flesh, not bones. It would have made more sense to take 10 interesting stories/characters/themes and explored those, not lots of little details that don't add up to much. In other words, these women are not loud enough.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really interesting and for most of it I loved it. But it lost me. Not only was it hard to follow the stories of women I had very little context for or had literally never heard of, but it was also a really intellectual book which was a challenge over a long read. Not bad and a beautiful one for the bookshelf.