A review by lcr16
Off with Her Head: Three Thousand Years of Demonizing Women in Power by Eleanor Herman

informative fast-paced

2.0

The most interesting part of this book is definitely setting the record straight on women leaders in history. Whether it was Isabeau of Bavaria, Catherine de Medici, Cleopatra, Mary Queen of Scots, or Marie Antoinette. Herman does a great job of infusing humor to persuade her argument in support of malign women throughout history. Even most of the women today are fascinating, I cannot get the story about the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard out of my head! However, I feel it lacks nuance in how it discussed modern American women politicians. I was disappointed in the early chapters not discussing the racist and xenophobic criticism of Harris. It also never discussed some of Clinton or Harris' larger controversies such as Benghazi or around being a public prosecutor while being critical of policing. I was interested to hear her perspective! It made her accounts of historical women I was unfamiliar with feel less credible. The chapters were also organized a little odd, which made it hard to follow her string of thought. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC!