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‘Fascinating’ BBC History Magazine
‘An important contribution to the field of military history’ The Times
‘Brilliant, perspective-shattering’ Bookseller
‘Outstanding . . . hard-hitting and evidence-based’ Wavell Reviews
From Boudicca to Ukraine, battlefields have always contained a surprising number of women. Tracing the long history of female fighters, Forgotten Warriors puts the record straight, exploring how war became an all-male space, and getting to the bottom of why women were allowed to be astronauts a full thirty years before they were allowed to fight in combat.
From the Mino, the all-female army that protected Dahomey from the West for two hundred years to the Night Witches, Soviet flying aces that decimated the Nazis; from the real story of Joan of Arc to the cross-dressing soldiers whose disguises were so effective the men around them never realized who they were fighting with, Sarah Percy shines a fascinating new light on the history of warfare. And against a backdrop of sieges and desperate battles, rebellions and civil wars, a series of extraordinary women come alive on the page, determined not to be passive victims.
Every country has their tomb to the unknown warrior, picking out one unnamed body to represent the sacrifices of thousands of others. As Forgotten Warriors shows, those overlooked soldiers could well be female. Their heroic and compelling stories need to be heard.
‘An important contribution to the field of military history’ The Times
‘Brilliant, perspective-shattering’ Bookseller
‘Outstanding . . . hard-hitting and evidence-based’ Wavell Reviews
From Boudicca to Ukraine, battlefields have always contained a surprising number of women. Tracing the long history of female fighters, Forgotten Warriors puts the record straight, exploring how war became an all-male space, and getting to the bottom of why women were allowed to be astronauts a full thirty years before they were allowed to fight in combat.
From the Mino, the all-female army that protected Dahomey from the West for two hundred years to the Night Witches, Soviet flying aces that decimated the Nazis; from the real story of Joan of Arc to the cross-dressing soldiers whose disguises were so effective the men around them never realized who they were fighting with, Sarah Percy shines a fascinating new light on the history of warfare. And against a backdrop of sieges and desperate battles, rebellions and civil wars, a series of extraordinary women come alive on the page, determined not to be passive victims.
Every country has their tomb to the unknown warrior, picking out one unnamed body to represent the sacrifices of thousands of others. As Forgotten Warriors shows, those overlooked soldiers could well be female. Their heroic and compelling stories need to be heard.
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Reviews
Truly impressive and rigorously researched, this is a book that should be included in all libraries
Lively and vivid
'The individual tales of women who took up arms on the battlefield - and there are many - bring great life and colour to the page . . . An important contribution to the field of military history'
Outstanding . . . Percy's text is hard-hitting, and evidence-based
Fascinating . . . in evidencing women's long military service, Percy combats . . . the final exclusion - from the historial record
Most people have heard of Boudicca and Joan of Arc. But as this brilliant, perspective-shattering book shows, the contributions of myriad other women who have fought on the frontlines of conflict over the past 2,000 years have routinely been suppressed
Magnificently researched, Forgotten Warriors opens up and heightens intellectual landscapes . . . it could not be more timely
Ambitious, wide-ranging and learned