Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Penn & Sword Press, and author Samantha Morris for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

When a book is titled “The Most Maligned Women in History,” I expect juicy gossip about women who were unfairly accused of something. For some women here, that’s the case. For others, not so much. In the end, though, I did enjoy the author’s commentary about how any woman who acted outside of societal norms of the time were often painted as witches or demons, while men of the era who did the same were given a pass.

Author Samantha Morris has chosen eleven women from history whom she feels were unfairly maligned. For many of them, she makes a strong case that they were just strong, independent women who were ahead of their time. In other cases, she misses the mark.

To contrast two of the choices, I’ll look at Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth Bathory. Anne Boleyn is blamed for Henry VIII divorcing his first wife and splitting the Church of England off from the Roman Catholic Church. Morris makes the case that King Henry was already acting erratically and fixated on having a male heir before Anne entered the picture. Anne stood up to him and refused to become his mistress causing him to become obsessed with her as well. In the eyes of the men of the time, she “bewitched” King Henry and forced him to act this way. Accusations flew once Anne fell out of favor with the King, leaving her with a reputation she hadn’t earned.

Contrasting that is Elizabeth Bathory, who was a serial killer in Hungary. Morris makes the argument that she was maligned because it was stated that she killed far more people than she actually did, as well as the falsehood that she bathed in the blood of her victims to stay young. This seems to be a bit of a reach as Bathory seems to have murdered some people, it’s just the number that is in question. Her servants testified against her at her trial, and might have exaggerated in an attempt to excuse their own complicity, but it’s fairly certain that some murders took place.

The historical context for these women was very interesting. Morris makes the case for Cleopatra, Empress Wu, Joan of Arc, Lucrezia Borgia, Catherine the Great, Marie Antoinette, Lizzie Borden, Empress Dowager Cixi, and Iva Toguri – “Tokyo Rose” to be included in this company. Some of them were easy to understand. Lizzie Borden might not have actually committed the crimes she was accused of, but she was the most convenient answer to the question of who killed her parents. I never felt that Joan of Arc was maligned, but it might be a case of how history is presented in different places in our world. Marie Antoinette just seems to be a vapid socialite, not all that much different from many people today.

Where Morris excels is in making the point that misogyny has always had a place in history, and she ties it to our current time. Without naming names, she points to how many female leaders are characterized in our modern time as “sleeping their way to the top” rather than being able to achieve greatness on their own due to intelligence and drive. It seems that is how men are automatically regarded, but not women. Never mind that so many men who rise to “greatness” are there due to generational wealth while women have to prove themselves over and over again.

At just 189 pages, The Most Maligned Women in History isn’t a long read. I felt there could have been more women included as Morris states there were a great many to choose from. There is a lot we can learn from these women and how they were treated during their lifetimes and after.