Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Womens History of the World By Rosalind Miles
I think those who have claimed this book as biased are missing the forest for the trees. Of course it's biased. It's called The Women's History of the World. Most accounts of history are biased in some form or another.
This book is mild in its bias; I've read other books that are far more scathing of the opposition.
That said, this was refreshing in its unforgiving nature. It's made me look at all accounts of history with a sharper eye.
For example, just last night, after finishing this book, I was watching a historical documentary on the Greeks. The only time women were even mentioned were to say that they were banned from participating and even watching in the Olympic Games. A single woman was mentioned later (they didn't even give us her name, for goodness sake): she was given to the Spartan king by her husband (an aristocrat trying to win favor), which helped him seal the Spartan's help in seizing the throne in Athens from another monarch. (This was on Netflix--The Greeks: The Crucible of Civilization narrated by Liam Neeson.) 352 I had one reservation about the book that stopped me from giving it the five stars that it deserves. In the chapter about religion as a form of oppression against women, the author had taken quotes and stories from Islam out of context, and without any evidence, using it to prove her point. As a Muslim, I can only speak about Islam, however it seemed that author was blatantly against any form of religion and made it her mission to talk about how it oppressed women. I became skeptical of most of her arguments. Nevertheless, I took it not with a grain, but a handful of a salt. The author did make some interesting and valid points throughout the rest of the book. I thought individual women's stories would be told, however the author's portrayal of women collectively, made it easy to understand the context of history with women's roles finally being acknowledged. 352 No, really, who did cook the Last Supper?
Okay, spoiler-alert. You don't actually find out who cooked the Last Supper. Bummer, I know. But that's not really the point. The point is that women have been a part of the historical landscape across the world for-freaking-ever, and no one really thinks about it that much because, well, they're not really portrayed that often in the Bible as any central characters - they're just slaves and whores and shit. And so often the history books (written by a bunch of white men) remove the true history of a lot of the world's famous women because, as I've stated before, strong, infamous women are super scary and are basically witches, so they cannot be trusted.
Rosalind Miles is a wickedly smart woman who wanted to give voice to the many women that history has ignored. It's not just a bunch of name-dropping, which I found to be a relief, because I didn't want a book-formatted Wikipedia article about a bunch of women. I wanted to know about them, yes, but also what they were up against, what they accomplished, why are they ignored so much in our society even today, and what can we do about that. And in that vein, Miles came through for me. (Because it's about me. It's always about me.)
As a self-proclaimed well-read woman myself, I like to think I have a finger on the pulse of a lot of quality information about women in history and shit, but even so I learned a lot from reading this book. Unfortunately it was long overdue at the library and so I no longer have a copy of the book here in front of me to be able to pinpoint some of the more interesting things I learned, but let it be known that I appreciated this book and felt okay with the fact that I held onto it like a week or two longer than I should have. I've had overdue library books before, but I can't remember the last time I actually got a reminder email saying No, really, this book is overdue, will you please return it (albeit in nicer librarial terms than that). Eventually I will even go back and pay the library overdue fee. Lazy-butt, here.
This should be read by everyone - not just women, but men too, because it's not just all about you guys, there's this whole other accomplished population out here and we shouldn't be ignored, not because we are witches and will hurt you, but because we're also humans and we have voices and talents and thoughts and valid beliefs. We're not as scary as everyone likes to make us out to be. 352 This book gave me too much power. Reading this with my bestie Bonnie, I was stopping every other sentence to declare I KNOW THAT'S RIGHT!! every time the book talked about how women were previously the most powerful gender in society. I liked some chapters in this book more than others, and sometimes the sentence structure could be so long and convoluted that the author's message was lost. But her tone was so hilarious and it made me really interested in picking up more books on this subject.
As a book from the 1990s there were a few things I think could've been modernized if the book were rewritten today, like a bigger focus on non-Western/white societies and better intersectionality. The N word was used in the last chapter, and it was in bad taste to cite white authors talking about abolitionism and civil rights rather than Black writers. My rating more reflects the first half of the book where I highly enjoyed learning about women's roles in society previous to modern times and before industrialization. 352 كتاب ثقيل جدا في قراءته ومعلوماته
كنت متوقعه الكاتبة تصل لوجهة نظرها بأسلوب أبسط من ذلك
الكاتبه أردات عرض حقائق عن طمس المرأة من كتب التاريخ فاتخذت من الهجوم سبيل لتقلب الطاوله علي نفسها بعد أن كان من المفترض أن تعرض حقائق
أكره الادب النسوي الهجومي البحت ولا يعجبني القراءة فيه
نجمتين لأن الكتاب مبذول فيه جهد كبير من عرض النظريات ولا شئ آخر 352
I’m going to tackle this one a little differently, but hopefully this format will be most helpful...
4.5 Stars
Who should read this book? If you're still not convinced, it's Women's History Month so take a chance.
Genre: Non-fiction/World History/ Women’s History/Gender Studies
What does this book cover? This book is organized into 4 sections with 3 chapters each.
Part one (“In the Beginning”) covers “the first women”—detailing prehistoric women’s roles and importance; “the great goddess”—discussing early women centric beliefs; and “the rise of the Phallus”—discussing sexuality and setting the stage for the overthrown of female rights, bloodlines, and worship.
Part two (“The Fall of Woman”) covers “God the father”—documenting how the organization of monotheist religions established unequal balances of power; “the sins of the Mothers”—exposing the abuses inflicted upon women because of their bodies; and “a little learning”—exploring how the development of literacy offered escapes as well as further suppression of women.
Part three (“Dominion and Domination”) covers “women’s work” —exposing the myth that women not only did less “work” than men but also the difficulty and unpleasantness of much of her manual labor; “revolution, the great engine” —looking at distinctly different types of revolutions yet how they both failed to usurp the status quo; and “the rod of empire” —exposing how imperialism further served to oppress and abuse women and extend the patriarchy.
Part four (“Turning the Tide”) covers “the rights of women” —discussing the modern developments that continues to oppress women and the beginnings of the women’s movement; ”the body politic” —discussing the role of contraception; and “daughters of time” —further detailing the advancement of contraception as well as the strides of the second wave of the women’s movement.
Triggers:
Religion—readers who are unwilling to see past the inherent misogyny in major world religions will have issues with this. My advice to readers—keep an open mind and check your own affiliations at the door.
Abuse—physical, psychological, sexual; you name it, it’s documented here. Violence including rape, genital mutilation, female infanticide, and murder. Oh and some ridiculous contraception ideas. It’s not pretty, but it’s women’s history without all the whitewashing. My advice to readers—bring tissues and don’t eat lunch first.
Controversies: At times, does the author belittle and reduce the importance men played in not just history but the advancement of the human race? Absolutely, but isn’t that what traditional history has done to women? Until an edition of world history where the sexes are presented equally becomes the mainstream text, readers are going to have to accept that as long as sexism exists a universal human history is out of reach.
Historical Accuracy: I am not a historian so I can’t comment on the complete accuracy of every incident and historical event referenced in this text. However, I think an objective historian would agree (and many have) that a vast number of history texts out there aren’t accurate either, whether through omissions, hero-making, and/or outright misrepresentations. It’s interesting though how those texts were accepted for so long, yet let a women offer up a book on history that proposes that it was the female of the species who had the greatest role in the continuation of the human race, and so much of her credibility and the credibility of the text is called into question.
It is also interesting disturbing how some readers see bias in this work but not the work of the male dominated texts on the market and utilized in the public school systems. That alone says a lot about the extent that sexism is so subconsciously rooted in society. We’ve somehow been trained to accept HIStory but not hers. And this is a large problem which I believe the text addresses. History has been shaped and documented through various fields of study where women were not only ignored and dismissed but consciously omitted by men in favor of a pro-male view where man is more important to the survival of human kind than women. Accepted history texts lack the incorporation of women’s role, if not their very existence, throughout places in history. Once you accept that women and their story have been suppressed, one must pose the next logical question of why. Miles attempts to answer this.
Shortcomings: There are certainly places in the text where sources and exact time periods could be clearer in a wider context and background, as well as a fuller picture of the examples would be beneficial. The author assumes the reader has a developed formal education and prior knowledge of people, incidents, and events in history.
There are admittedly also places where Miles’s word choice might be going for effect but at the same time distorts her claims. For example, a good editor might have recommended that she substitute “only” with “largely” when referring to Jackie O and Lady Di’s fame and accomplishments via their “royal” men. Were their life’s accomplishments solely tied to their husbands? No. But would they be the historical icons they are had they not married those men in the first place? Nope.
In another instance, replacing “no” with “minimal” when asserting men’s function and significance under Goddess culture might be help avoid the obvious contradiction that comes a few paragraphs/pages later.
How I felt reading this book: Some chapters made me feel proud to be a woman and inspired to work towards advancing equality. Some chapters made me angry—the injustices, the abuses—it’s a gut-wrenching history pill to swallow. Some chapters l was holding back the tears. This isn’t a light read nor should the subject matter be taken lightly, but it is important to understand.
In the whole of the vast fun-house of history's jokes and tricks, there can be few greater ironies than the spectacle of women embracing and furthering systems that would all too soon attack their autonomy, crush their individuality and undermine the very reason for their existence (Miles 89).
Is this a feminist text? By definition (cited here from Merriam-Webster dictionary) and largely from a scholarly theorist perspective feminism is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes as well as organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.” This book offer theories (along with and backed by research from various fields of study) of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes so in that frame of reference it’s a feminist text. But bear in mind that over the years the term feminism has taken on a variety of negative connotations (often the work of its opposition in an attempt to discredit it), but I’m not going to give recognition to those distortions.
Why this text is still relevant:
Millions of women who publicly disclaim feminism have nevertheless reached out with both hands for the chance it has opened up for them (Miles 10).
The lack of a women’s history or women studies discipline in general education curriculums have left a large crux of 21st century women and men uninformed and misinformed. And though originally published in 1988, and thus the last nearly thirty years are not included, this book not only documents women’s struggles through the ages, but also points to issues still at the forefront today.
Women and men living in 2017 should possess a basic understanding of how history has swayed backwards and forward through slow transitions and difficult strides towards equality. We can’t assume that because it’s been won, that it can’t be taken away.
From the very beginning of time, women weren’t affronted with inequality; instead they descended to it. Many rights that were won in the 20th century were given freely in earlier civilizations. Women’s equality has not historically been a linear progression, but more a series of setbacks and advances as societal conditions change.
Women’s oppression, while universal and unrelenting for millenniums, varies widely by class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religion. There is no one answer to fix all ills.
“Every country held, too, peculiar challenges for feminism; the struggle worldwide consisted not of imposing a set of general principals from nation to nation, but of winning what could be won from local conditions and national conventions” (Miles 240).
Bottom Line /Hard Truths: If you are looking for a fluff piece highlighting well known women through the ages, this is not one of them. This text looks at historical trends and attempts to offer viable explanations (through what little evidence and unbiased scholarship there is on certain time frames) as to not just what women were doing while men were getting all the credit, but why they were omitted in the first place. And I suspect that might be what some readers struggle with—the idea that it became a conscious effort to suppress women’s voices and women’s contributions. It’s mind boggling really that one can acknowledge women’s absence from traditional text but still refuse to admit there is a long standing patriarchal bias that made it that way in the first place. It’s as if some readers want to know what’s missing but don’t want to face the disturbing realities of its absence.
How I got this book/Why I read this book/My background: I ordered this book (paperback edition) from Amazon after browsing several books on the subject for consideration for my kids’ educational studies. I read it first and made a chapter by chapter study guide for our lessons. I have a background in English literature with a concentration in women’s literature and feminist criticism so the general subject matter wasn’t previously unfamiliar, but I still found the details moving and the overall thesis an enlightening and essential read. 352 Already in the introduction, there are some ridiculous passages about how, unlike women, male black slaves weren't raped (sis...), and neither were men during the Bosnian genocide (have I got news for YOU).
She engages in some oppression Olympics (the Taliban laws for women were worse than the Nazi laws for Jews!).
And weirdly dismisses the achievements of Jacqueline Onassis and Lady Di as famous only through the men they married, and not for any talent of their own (direct quote). Listen, I'm no Jackie or Diana fangirl, but even I know that Jacqueline did REMARKABLE work during her brief period as First Lady, entirely remaking the White House as a sort of living museum and collecting and preserving historically significant pieces of American history (she made a whole campaign of it!). She also changed the way diplomatic receptions were held in the White House (and, of course, she was an apt diplomat herself) and was a patron of American arts. And later in life she also had her own publishing house. And Diana, do I even have to mention her activism?? Like do you know how many people she helped and how many causes she fought for??
The author also subscribes to the myth of the prehistorical matriarchy. You know, the hippie belief that in the Stone Age women were footloose and fancy-free, and God was a woman. There is some very shallow picking and choosing of evidence with no real context for the societies, everything is mixed in order to support this thesis but you finish reading and you won't really know anything new about any of the subjects.
I want to read a women's history of the world, but this clearly isn't it. (Probably because the author isn't a historian, but an English scholar) 352 Every girl, and every boy, should have to read this as a textbook at school. Women have changed the world. Someone's just forgotten to write it down.This is one of my top 3 books of all time. It is entertaining, horrifying, unbelievable and well-researched. Women need to take back the power that patriarchal society and religion has taken from them. Miles does not flinch as she unravels a history that too few know about. 352 Overall, this book was full of interesting information, stories & facts. Unfortunately, the interesting bits could have been strung together much more artfully, and with a more nuanced perspective on race and colonialism.
I couldn't help but notice that this women's history was primarily a history of white women, though Miles never explicitly says this. Women of color are discussed throughout, but predominantly as an afterthought. This is most noticeable when Miles discusses what it was like to be the wife of a colonizer and, after waxing poetic on their troubles, finally gets to discussing the brutality and degradation that the colonized face, but only discusses the women affected briefly.
Most importantly, though, her conception of first world v.s. third world/Western v.s. Eastern is mind-blowingly condescending. She explicitly says in the introduction that Western women are much better off than Eastern women, and here is why, and here's what Western women should do to help. This sort of white savior thinking is oddly less present in the main text of the book, but Miles' strong tendency to gloss over the roles of racism and orientalism (if not outright ignore them) on women's lives is unmistakably thread throughout. In short, not all women are white women, and Miles ability to conceptualize & tell the stories of women all around the world without subtly (and explicitly) prioritizing the experiences of white, Western women, was lacking.
Overall, I'd recommend reading through this book for the facts and primary accounts of women throughout history - it is truly fascinating, and I look forward to digging into her list of references for more reading. Please skip the introduction - it's worthless. And if you really want an even-handed history of women around the world, this isn't the place to find it. 352 2 stars
An outdated, white-feminist history of the world heavy influenced by the author's belief in a bullshit, disproved, mythology of of a prehistoric matriarchal utopia. Gets more interesting (but also more western-focused) as it reaches the more modern sections dealing with women's suffrage and contraceptive rights.
There is a lot of bad history here, a number of factual mistakes, cultural ignorance, and a lack of intersectinslity. BUT, I do appreciate that this was written back in 1988 (making it the same age as me) and is in most ways a product of it's time. Thankfully the discourse around these issues has changed hugely within my lifetime.
While all that makes this book an interesting one to read for someone interested in history, feminism, and the history of the feminist movement, it doesn't actually make it a good history book. 352
Men dominate history because they write it. Women’s vital part in the shaping of the world has been consistently undervalued or ignored. Rosalind Miles now offers a fundamental reappraisal that sets the record straight. Stunning in its scope and originality, The Women’s History of the World challenges all previous world histories and shatters cherished illusions on every page.
Starting with women in pre-history the author looks beyond the myth of ‘Man the Hunter’ to reveal women’s central role in the survival and evolution of the human race. She follows their progress from the days when God was a woman through to the triumphs of the Amazons and Assyrian war queens: she looks at the rise of organised religion and the growing oppression of women: she charts the long slow struggle for women’s rights culminating in the twentieth century women’s movements: and finally she presents a vision of women breaking free.
This brilliant and absorbing book turns the spotlight on the hidden side of history to present a fascinating new view of the world, overturning our preconceptions to restore women to their rightful place at the centre of the worldwide story of revolution, empire, war and peace.
Spiced with tales of individual women who have shaped history, celebrating the work and lives of the unsung female millions, distinguished by a wealth of research, The Women’s History of the World redefines the concept of historical reality. Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Womens History of the World