THE WOMEN'S HISTORY OF THE MODERN WORLD

English novelist and journalist Miles celebrates women’s achievements—some worthy and others dubious—from the French Revolution to the age of #MeToo.

Are feminists running out of neglected trailblazers to hold up for overdue praise? Readers may wonder after reading this curious narrative paean to myriad “extraordinary women” who have “banded together to remake our world.” The author begins with three underappreciated heroines of the French Revolution: Olympe de Gouges, a writer guillotined for sins that included protesting injustices to women; Théroigne de Méricourt, a revolutionary known for “striding around town in a man’s riding clothes and sporting a large hat with a flamboyant phallic plume”; and Pauline Léon, a champion of women’s right to bear arms. Others who merit their entries include Patyegarang, an 18th-century Indigenous woman of Australia’s Eora nation who helped to create the first written record of “the Aboriginal Language of Sydney”; and Katō Shidzue, a Japanese feminist who brought Margaret Sanger to Japan when her country classified ideas about birth control as “dangerous thoughts.” Yet it’s hard to fathom why, among political figures, the author taps Imelda Marcos and Jiang Qing (“Madame Mao”) but not Golda Meir, or why, among aerospace pioneers, she nods to Hitler’s personal pilot, Hanna Reitsch (who embraced “Nazi theories of racial purity”), but not Amelia Earhart or Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. Miles’ tone sometimes does a disservice to her subjects, as she ranges from matter-of-fact declaration to sarcastic dismissal—e.g., when she corrects herself after mentioning Vietnam’s “French invaders”: “sorry, colonists delivering the benefits of civilization.” Still, this fact-packed chronicle may appeal to younger readers or those seeking a more playful, anecdotal approach to women’s history. The book ends with “The Women’s Manifesto for Equality,” of perhaps less interest to American women than to their sisters in places where feminism still lacks traction.

Herstory with a dash of sarcasm and a wide global and chronological reach.