Debunking Women's History Myths & Legends About 101 Infamous Women Exploded

by Rayner, Ed; Stapley, Ron

• ISBN13: 9781848682177
• ISBN10: 1848682174
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-10-15
• Publisher: Amberley Publishing

Summary

What you didn't know about famous and infamous women in history. History is not something that counts to men's credit alone, though they have often claimed it as their exclusive achievement. This book deals with the part that women have played in history, and acknowledges their role, although at the time they may have received little acknowledgment for it. For women of all stations and in all walks of life have made their contribution to human history, whether they have been queens or rulers, scientists or doctors, entertainers or artists, radicals or conservatives, or simply wives and mothers. Whether, too, they have made that contribution openly and on their own account, or whether they have used their sometimes subordinate position in society to engineer it by more subtle means. This book serves to stress this contribution, sometimes merely to remind the reader of it and to restate it, but sometimes, where necessary, To re-evaluate its true importance. Where myths or legends or simple forgetfulness have obscured the value of women's contributions to government, scientific research, artistic achievement, pioneering progress or radical reform, The writers have sought to remedy the defect and restore women to their rightful importance, and through that to award them the esteem that they properly deserve.

Author Biography

Ed Rayner spent a lifetime teaching history at school and college level, and had been a Chief Examiner in History for London Board and for AEB. His other books with co-author Ron Stapley include the hugely successful Debunking History: 152 Popular Myths Exploded and Who Was Mr Nobody? Debunking Historical Mysteries.Ron Stapley spent a lifetime teaching history at school and college level, and has been a Chief Examiner in History for London Board and for AEB. His other books with co-author Ed Rayner include the hugely successful Debunking History: 152 Popular Myths Exploded and Who Was Mr Nobody? Debunking Historical Mysteries. Ron lives in Middlesbrough.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 9
Helen of Troy	p. 11
Artists	p. 15
Dante & Beatrice	p. 15
Aphra Behn	p. 16
Jane Austen	p. 18
Elizabeth Barrett Browning	p. 21
Helen Bradley	p. 24
Coco Chanel	p. 28
Enid Blyton	p. 30
Entertainers and Stars	p. 34
Greta Garbo	p. 34
Joyce Grenfell	p. 36
Marilyn Monroe	p. 40
Grade Fields	p. 43
Margot Fonteyn	p. 46
Battleaxes	p. 49
Laura Ormiston Chant	p. 49
Mary Whitehouse	p. 52
Scientists	p. 55
Margaret Ann Bulkley	p. 55
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson	p. 57
Marie Curie	p. 62
Mistresses and Favourites	p. 66
Roxelana	p. 66
Nell Gwynn	p. 69
Abigail Masham	p. 72
Sarah Churchill	p. 74
Françoise d' Aubigné	p. 78
Jeanne-Antoinette d'Étoiles	p. 81
Jeanne Bécu	p. 87
Peggy Eaton	p. 90
Lillie Langtry	p. 92
Eva Braun	p. 96
Clara Petacci	p. 98
Wives	p. 103
Anne Hathaway	p. 103
Elizabeth Pepys	p. 105
Mary Anne Disraeli	p. 109
Jane Carlyle	p. 112
Lady Emily Tennyson	p. 114
Alice Liddell	p. 117
Magda Goebbels	p. 119
Ruth Bell Graham	p. 122
Heroines	p. 125
Lady Godiva	p. 125
Joan of Arc	p. 126
Grace Darling	p. 128
Mary Seacole	p. 131
Edith Cavell	p. 133
Eva Perón	p. 135
Phyllis Thom	p. 139
Anne Frank	p. 141
Sophie Scholl	p. 144
Princess Diana	p. 147
Trollops	p. 153
Skittles	p. 153
Ruth Ellis	p. 157
Christine Keeler	p. 161
Monsters	p. 166
Lady Macbeth	p. 166
Lady Rochford	p. 168
Ulrike Meinhof	p. 171
Rosemary West	p. 173
Political Leaders	p. 179
Madame Roland	p. 179
Margaret Thatcher	p. 182
Benazir Bhutto	p. 187
Aung San Suu Kyi	p. 190
Shirley Williams	p. 192
Earlier Famous Queens and Rulers	p. 196
Queen of Sheba	p. 196
Livia	p. 198
Boudica	p. 201
The Two Matildas	p. 204
Queen Isabella	p. 207
Diane de Poitiers	p. 212
Catherine de Medici	p. 215
Elizabeth of York	p. 221
Elizabeth I	p. 224
Later Famous Queens and Rulers	p. 229
Queen Christina	p. 229
Henrietta Maria	p. 232
Bess of Hardwick	p. 238
Anne of Denmark	p. 242
Catherine of Braganza	p. 246
Queen Caroline	p. 248
Princess Mathilde	p. 251
Queen Victoria	p. 253
Liliuokalani	p. 259
Infamous Queens and Rulers	p. 262
Aelfthryth	p. 262
Emma	p. 264
Judith	p. 268
Lucrezia Borgia	p. 270
Mary Tudor	p. 277
Tz'u Hsi	p. 280
Radicals and Pioneers	p. 283
Mary Astell	p. 283
Mary Wollstonecraft	p. 284
Madame de Staël	p. 287
Harriet Martineau	p. 290
Isabella Beeton	p. 293
Annie Besant	p. 298
Emily Hobhouse	p. 302
Fanny Lee Chaney	p. 307
Maria Boulding	p. 309
Social Reformers	p. 312
Selena Hastings	p. 312
Frances Buss	p. 314
Josephine Butler	p. 315
Octavia Hill	p. 318
Catherine Booth	p. 320
Harriet Beecher Stowe	p. 322
Matilda Ashurst Briggs	p. 324
Helen Suzman	p. 327
Maya Angelou	p. 329
Notes	p. 333
Select Bibliography	p. 370
Index	p. 380
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