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The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise To Power In Ancient Egypt (2014)

by Kara Cooney(Favorite Author)

4.06 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0307956768 (ISBN13: 9780307956767)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Crown Publishing

review 1: I am not a fan of what I think is a disturbing new trend in 'nonfiction' writing: suppositions that are written as fact to give the book a narrative structure more like fiction (I assume that's the goal). At least this author had the decency to honestly admit what she was going to do in her introduction, but I still disapprove. Obviously, there are a lot of details that we don't know about the Egyptians, including their emotions and mindsets at various points in their lives. Any intelligent reader knows this and knows that a nonfiction book is not meant to supply these unknown variables; what does it say about our culture that authors are, in my opinion, dumb-downing research for the masses? Is this the fault of the History Channel? Where are my exhaustive academically res... moreearched texts (like Stacy Schiff, for example) that are, yes, somewhat difficult to slog though, but that leave you feeling satisfied and educated? It is possible to intelligently discuss unknowns: by quoting contemporary source materials that have different points of view and comparing and contrasting those. Or is this done for increased word count to result in some sort of economic gain? Or is done to hear themselves talk or create a longer book? I would much rather read a short but 100% factual work than a longer book that has been unnecessarily fluffed up for some reason.
review 2: This is a wonderful bio of Hatshepsut, the only woman Pharaoh. There had been a couple of women who were queens, but that was long before Hatshepsut. She was the daughter of Thutmose I, and , as was the custom the, married her half-brother, Thutmose, who would be the second Pharaoh of that name. She was only twelve at her marriage, and at the age of thirteen, bore her first child, a daughter. However husband did not live long, although he had another wife, who gave birth to a son, who was only a small child at his father's death. Hatshepsut became the regent, and ruled Egypt in her brother's name. Gradually, she assumed more and more power, began having statues made of her, which were placed in temples, etc. Then, she began converting herself into the actual Pharaoh, making her images more and more masculine. She was a very smart and wise ruler and under her leadership, Egypt grew more and more wealthy. When Thutmose III reached the age of seventeen, he became the co-Pharaoh and they both had equal powers Thutmose was off making war most of the time, it's a good thing there was someone so capable in charge. Hatshepsut died at around the age of forty, and the Thutmose became the sole ruler. It was only after 20 years past, that he began destroying her images and her temples because of Egypt's complicated method of selecting the Pharaoh. He decided that only men from then on would be Pharaoh and only the began to eradicate her from memory. Fortunately, she was such a prodigious builder that he was unable to destroy everything. She really was a great women and feminist. Fascinating read. less

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