Reviews - The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule

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365 reviews for:

The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule

The title is a bit off, the argument seems to be that there isn't one birth source for patriarchy. It's more of an introduction or survey. Still there is quite a bit in here that makes the book well worth reading.

aismith's review against another edition

4.0

informative medium-paced

jojo's review against another edition

4.0

informative medium-paced

baukeanna's review against another edition

4.0

I learned a lot from this book, but it also meanders a lot without too much structure and doesn’t really offer one single argument or point (which, I mean, isn’t surprising as history and science book). I found it hard to get through and noticed I often struggled to pick it up because it is quite dense. If you appreciate the fact that this book isn’t going to pretend that history and societal change aren’t the extremely complex and non-linear things that they are, you will love this book.

jemalive's review against another edition

3.5

informative reflective medium-paced

It turns out the answer to the question posed by the title is - it’s complicated.

I loved the chapter on pre-history as I hadn’t really thought about that before (how we can piece together people’s intentions without written records and how liable that interpretation is to bias). Plus, the “goddess” statue with the two leopards from Catalhoyuk is really cool. I also want to visit Catalhoyuk now.

I found myself becoming a bit frustrated without a clear answer to the question posed by the book. Perhaps the best answer to the title question is just that we don’t know… I think that’s more the fault of the title than the book though (literary click bait?).