Excluded women?

Barry Baldwin dismisses an axe-grinding book which has far too many omissions

A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women How Women Transformed the Empire Emma Southon Oneworld Publications 2023 Hb, 416pp, £18.99, ISBN 9780861542307 This book is both pot-boiled from the author’s previous books and an outdated feminist moan about the exclusion of women from male-written histories of Rome. Southon (who quit Academe, dubbing it “grim”) kicks off by lambasting an unnamed professor who deprecated Womens’ Studies as no better than those of Dogs. Well, there was such a time. But now long gone. Men have been writing about ancient women for decades. Three conspicuous examples: Charles Seltman, Women in Antiquity, 1954; Stewart Perowne, The Caesars’ Wives: Above Suspicion?, 1974; JPVD Balsdon, Roman Women: Their History and Habits, 1962. All of these are omitted from a somewhat unscrupulous bibliography, as…

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Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 444

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