Unrivalled Influence bookcover

Unrivalled Influence

Women and Empire in Byzantium
4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world

Description

Unrivalled Influence explores the exceptional roles that women played in the vibrant cultural and political life of medieval Byzantium. Written by one of the world's foremost historians of the Byzantine millennium, this landmark book evokes the complex and exotic world of Byzantium's women, from empresses and saints to uneducated rural widows. Drawing on a diverse range of sources, Judith Herrin sheds light on the importance of marriage in imperial statecraft, the tense coexistence of empresses in the imperial court, and the critical relationships of mothers and daughters. She looks at women's interactions with eunuchs, the in-between gender in Byzantine society, and shows how women defended their rights to hold land. Herrin describes how they controlled their inheritances, participated in urban crowds demanding the dismissal of corrupt officials, followed the processions of holy icons and relics, and marked religious feasts with liturgical celebrations, market activity, and holiday pleasures. The vivid portraits that emerge here reveal how women exerted an unrivalled influence on the patriarchal society of Byzantium, and remained active participants in the many changes that occurred throughout the empire's millennial history.

Unrivalled Influence brings together Herrin's finest essays on women and gender written throughout the long span of her esteemed career. This volume includes three new essays published here for the very first time and a new general introduction by Herrin. She also provides a concise introduction to each essay that describes how it came to be written and how it fits into her broader views about women and Byzantium.

Product Details

PublisherPrinceton University Press
Publish DateJune 23, 2015
Pages352
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconPaperback / softback
EAN/UPC9780691166704
Dimensions9.2 X 6.1 X 0.8 inches | 1.2 pounds

About the Author

Judith Herrin is the Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's College London. She is the author of Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium, and The Formation of Christendom (all Princeton).

Reviews

"[A] welcome corrective to long-standing cartoon-like images of Byzantine women as over-sexed in public and over-pious in private."---Christopher Kelly, Times Literary Supplement
"Herrin has followed her publisher's excellent advice that she preface each piece with a generous account of when and how it came to be written. This means that, together with her general introductions for the two volumes, the reader has an extraordinary glimpse into the evolution of Byzantine studies from the 1960s onward as well as for the personal development of Herrin herself as a Byzantine historian. The two volumes are a kind of intellectual autobiography. I know of nothing quite like them in the time-honored tradition of collecting a scholar's papers. We can see clearly, step by step, how Herrin became the historian she is today as well as the environment that supported her, and through her, the field to which she has dedicated her life."---G.W. Bowersock, New York Review of Books
"Judith Herrin, whose vision is both consistent and reasonable, has been and remains one ofthe most constructive and innovative scholars in the field of Byzantine history. I have followedher work for nearly thirty-five years and, while I have not always agreed with everything thatshe has written, I have never failed to be impressed by the clarity of her argumentation whichoften compelled me to reconsider my own views. Unrivalled is a worthwhile read for anyonewho wishes to see the interplay of research and biography, to learn about an understudied aspectof Byzantine history and society, and to enjoy thoughtful and thought-provoking scholarship."---David Olster, European Legacy
"Judith Herrin, Winner of the 2016 Dr A.H. Heineken Prize, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences"

Earn by promoting books

Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.sign up to affiliate program link
Become an affiliate