by Kate Mosse
Release Date: April 8, 2025
2025 Pan
Ebook ARC; 432 Pages
ISBN: 978-1529092233
ASIN: B0B252P4TJ
Audiobook: B0B2PSGVBL
Genre: Non-Fiction / History / Feminism
Source: Review copy from publisher
3 / 5 Stars
Summary
Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries
brings together Kate’s rich and detailed knowledge of unheard and
under-heard women’s history, and of how and why women’s achievements
have routinely been omitted from the history books.
Split into ten sections, each covering a different category of women’s achievements in history, Kate Mosse tells the stories of female inventors and scientists, philanthropists and conservationists, authors and campaigners. It is the most accessible narrative non-fiction with a genuinely diverse, truly global perspective. And in deeply personal passages Kate writes about the life of her great-grandmother, Lily Watson, where she turns detective to find out why she has all but disappeared from the record.
Split into ten sections, each covering a different category of women’s achievements in history, Kate Mosse tells the stories of female inventors and scientists, philanthropists and conservationists, authors and campaigners. It is the most accessible narrative non-fiction with a genuinely diverse, truly global perspective. And in deeply personal passages Kate writes about the life of her great-grandmother, Lily Watson, where she turns detective to find out why she has all but disappeared from the record.
My Thoughts
Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries had a really appealing concept: introduce a variety of women who inspired, challenged, taught, won, appealed, were diminished, and fought to have the right to study and learn alongside men in their respective fields. The idea was not to give detailed biographies of these women, but to highlight their achievements in a variety of fields and to inspire the reader to do further research on their own. Many of these women had momentous achievements that were wrongly attributed to others, were diminished because they were women, or were completely forgotten in the history annals.
The book also focused on the author’s great-grandmother, a literary author who herself has been forgotten and whose work is largely unpublished today. While doing research, the author wanted to discover how a prolific author in the past becomes almost unknown today. This research inspired her to learn about more women pushed to obscurity and write this book. Divided into several fields such as literacy, science, sports, science and technology, etc… women who led in their respective fields are highlighted. Because I read so much non-fiction, I was familiar with a lot of the names, but I did keep a running list of women about whom I wanted to do more research because I was inspired. Because this was so fascinating though, there was a part of me that wished the list of women was smaller so the author could focus more on the interesting lives these women led and not just throw out lists of names.
And while I appreciated all of the research that went into this book and did understand the approach, I am still ambivalent as to whether it worked. Sometimes I felt like I was reading part of an encyclopedia rather than a summary. And while I also enjoyed learning about her great-grandmother, I don’t think the two things meshed well in this book. I know everyone can’t be included, but I did wait for a couple of women to be mentioned who were definitely pioneers in their field who were completely ignored. But importance is in who is writing the book? Like in the past?
Verdict
Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries is a compilation of an incredible list of pioneering women and I appreciated the amount of research that went into this book. While I wasn’t crazy at some of the omissions, I did like the variety of women that were highlighted. However, if you aren’t familiar with women in history, this is a great starting point to do some research and can just read the chapter in which you are interested as a launching point. I recommend it for that reason alone.
The book also focused on the author’s great-grandmother, a literary author who herself has been forgotten and whose work is largely unpublished today. While doing research, the author wanted to discover how a prolific author in the past becomes almost unknown today. This research inspired her to learn about more women pushed to obscurity and write this book. Divided into several fields such as literacy, science, sports, science and technology, etc… women who led in their respective fields are highlighted. Because I read so much non-fiction, I was familiar with a lot of the names, but I did keep a running list of women about whom I wanted to do more research because I was inspired. Because this was so fascinating though, there was a part of me that wished the list of women was smaller so the author could focus more on the interesting lives these women led and not just throw out lists of names.
And while I appreciated all of the research that went into this book and did understand the approach, I am still ambivalent as to whether it worked. Sometimes I felt like I was reading part of an encyclopedia rather than a summary. And while I also enjoyed learning about her great-grandmother, I don’t think the two things meshed well in this book. I know everyone can’t be included, but I did wait for a couple of women to be mentioned who were definitely pioneers in their field who were completely ignored. But importance is in who is writing the book? Like in the past?
Verdict
Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries is a compilation of an incredible list of pioneering women and I appreciated the amount of research that went into this book. While I wasn’t crazy at some of the omissions, I did like the variety of women that were highlighted. However, if you aren’t familiar with women in history, this is a great starting point to do some research and can just read the chapter in which you are interested as a launching point. I recommend it for that reason alone.
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