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410 reviews for:
The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt
Kara Cooney
3.71 AVERAGE
410 reviews for:
The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt
Kara Cooney
3.71 AVERAGE
2023 open books challenge: book about ancient Egypt. I was excited to tackle this category because I don’t think I’ve read anything about ancient Egypt since elementary school. I knew that Hatshepsut existed, but that’s pretty much it. The author is very open about what she does not know and what must be inferred, but for a biography of someone who lived 3500 years ago, with only factual, objective official documents for sources, there is enough meat to this story for it to be comprehensive and engaging. I learned that Hatshepsut created a very deliberate strategy to gain the throne, and was a very pious leader who legitimized her ascension through her role in the temple and having religious visions. She never hid her femininity, and the discussions about the appearance of her statues over the years and how she used the Egyptian language (which has gendered forms of words) to her advantage were fascinating. Finally, she appears to have been a successful and long-lasting ruler who reign was expansive and successful. The removal of her name from monuments likely occurred many years after her death, perhaps as a way for her nephew to legitimize his heir to the throne.
Although a tiny bit repetitive in some places, this is an eye-opening account of, not just Hatshepsut's rise to power, but life in ancient Egypt during her reign. Sadly, the circumstances and environment surrounding Hatshepsut's rise to power and the things she had to do to maintain that power (and the inevitable erasure of her kingship when the weight of the civilization dynasty moved her extremely successful leadership back to the usual mediocre patriarchal lineage) would be familiar to anyone who has followed the campaigns of Victoria Woodhull, Shirley Chisholm, or Hillary Clinton. Several millennia later, women are still fighting the same biases as our ancestors.
So Hatshepsut was king of Egypt for over 20 years and no one really knows that. Why? Because her co-ruler and successor tried to wipe her legacy out of history. Of course, it is interesting that he only started to erase Hatshepsut 20 years after her death when the question of his own successor arose. Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose I and wife of Thutmose II. Unfortunately, she had only a daughter with the king so one of Thutmose II's other sons was named heir. Thutmose III was just a toddler when his father died so Hatshepsut became regent even though she was not his mother. She was the Great Wife of Aman and King's Wife and Daughter however. This gave her a certain amount of power. It probably helped that the mother of Thutmose III was not highborn. During her 20 years as regent and then king Hatshepsut reshaped Egypt. She commissioned great building projects and expeditions to other lands. She reorganized the priesthood and gave power to those loyal to her. At some point in her reign as regent she restyled herself king and ruled not beside Thutmose III but before him as the senior king of Egypt. She was a great king and well respected in her lifetime by both the elites and the populace. But her face and name were removed from temples and monuments and the history of the period by Thutmose III nearly 20 years after her death. Cooney speculates that he wanted to make sure females did not have the power to become king or to take away the significance of king's daughters in selecting an heir. We may never know exactly why Hatshepsut chose to name herself king or why her name was removed from the record. Cooney has produced a remarkable and believable narrative to explain both of these. This is a fascinating look at a woman king from the 18th dynasty of Egypt who's name has not been recorded as other great female rulers have. She should be listed with Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Cleopatra, Boudicca and other great female rulers of history.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Absolutely fascinating! I was quickly confronted with my own lack of knowledge regarding Ancient Egyptian culture and rituals, as I found myself aghast at how sexual the history of Hatshepsut was. It's hard to listen to it without overlaying my current opinions and perspectives on morality, but it was still extremely fascinating to learn about this woman's life.
Very well done and very comprehensive. At first I was annoyed at how often it was repeated that many things weren't recorded - such as peoples opinions and how people felt about different things, but there is quite a bit of conjecture within the story on how people were feelings and about different reactions. I think there are probably some false assumptions present, but when you take the attempts to create a more internal monologue of a narrative with some salt, it is a great overview of such a powerful and barely known (at least to me and people I know) King's life.
3.5, almost four stars, but not quite enough to reach that fourth star, hence giving it 3.
Very well done and very comprehensive. At first I was annoyed at how often it was repeated that many things weren't recorded - such as peoples opinions and how people felt about different things, but there is quite a bit of conjecture within the story on how people were feelings and about different reactions. I think there are probably some false assumptions present, but when you take the attempts to create a more internal monologue of a narrative with some salt, it is a great overview of such a powerful and barely known (at least to me and people I know) King's life.
3.5, almost four stars, but not quite enough to reach that fourth star, hence giving it 3.
Hapshepsut is a unique figure in Egyptian history, a woman who attained the title of king. However, it’s not easy to write a biography when very little is known about the subject. Kara Cooney provides a lot of somewhat repetitive detail on everything that is known, such as the locations of all Hapshepsut’s monuments and her inscriptions to herself. I learned quite a lot from this book, but I was also largely – even monumentally - bored by it.
Much of the book is conjecture, expressed with great hesitation. Many paragraphs begin with “We don’t know exactly…”, “It is supposed that…”, or “Perhaps we should accept that…” The author is too responsible a historian to actually write historical fiction, but she can’t resist outlining some of the themes that she might take if she were writing such a book. So we get a little drama here and there, and then we’re told that there’s no way of knowing whether anybody was thinking or feeling or doing any such thing.
The broad outlines of Hapshepsut’s life are interesting. She was powerfully placed as king’s wife and temple priestess, when her husband (and brother) the king died. There was no clear ruler, so she took over, presumably as regent to her toddler nephew. She presided over a time of great wealth in Egypt, built a network of loyal officials, and over the years changed her statuary so that she looked more like a man than a woman. She was already invested with religious status, and so she claimed that the Great God Amen himself had put her on the throne, as a co-ruler with her nephew. Not long after he grew up, she conveniently died, and a decade after that, her nephew put a lot of effort into obliterating her statuary.
Some of the details are interesting. I enjoyed finding out more about the mummification process. But I found the whole book a bit bloodless.
Much of the book is conjecture, expressed with great hesitation. Many paragraphs begin with “We don’t know exactly…”, “It is supposed that…”, or “Perhaps we should accept that…” The author is too responsible a historian to actually write historical fiction, but she can’t resist outlining some of the themes that she might take if she were writing such a book. So we get a little drama here and there, and then we’re told that there’s no way of knowing whether anybody was thinking or feeling or doing any such thing.
The broad outlines of Hapshepsut’s life are interesting. She was powerfully placed as king’s wife and temple priestess, when her husband (and brother) the king died. There was no clear ruler, so she took over, presumably as regent to her toddler nephew. She presided over a time of great wealth in Egypt, built a network of loyal officials, and over the years changed her statuary so that she looked more like a man than a woman. She was already invested with religious status, and so she claimed that the Great God Amen himself had put her on the throne, as a co-ruler with her nephew. Not long after he grew up, she conveniently died, and a decade after that, her nephew put a lot of effort into obliterating her statuary.
Some of the details are interesting. I enjoyed finding out more about the mummification process. But I found the whole book a bit bloodless.
informative
slow-paced
I abandoned this book. Just couldn't get into it. Too much speculation and qualification.
I learned about a new queen but this book seemed a bit repetitive. I started predicting what the next words were. It could’ve been edited down a bit but overall it was insightful.
Highly engaging. It is astonishing how vastly Hatshepsut had to alter the culture of ancient Egypt to become king. Politics were passed over in favor of intense religious beliefs, and she stands as one of the few truly powerful and impressive women of the ancient age.
Although I did enjoy the detail and research that Cooney poured into the book, I was less impressed by the incomplete analysis and malaligned conjecture, most of which she appears to have gleaned from other historians. I would, however, have been much more impressed by a conclusion that analyzed Hatshepsut's methodology alongside that of Artemisia or Boadicea, rather than the overtly (and overly) feminist diatribe that she scribed.
Although I did enjoy the detail and research that Cooney poured into the book, I was less impressed by the incomplete analysis and malaligned conjecture, most of which she appears to have gleaned from other historians. I would, however, have been much more impressed by a conclusion that analyzed Hatshepsut's methodology alongside that of Artemisia or Boadicea, rather than the overtly (and overly) feminist diatribe that she scribed.