Forgotten Warriors

'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.

'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' The Times
Ambitious, wide-ranging and learned TLS
Outstanding . . . Percy's text is hard-hitting, and evidence-based Wavell Reviews
Truly impressive and rigorously researched, this is a book that should be included in all libraries New York Journal of Books
Fascinating . . . in evidencing women's long military service, Percy combats . . . the final exclusion - from the historial record BBC History Magazine
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 Bookseller
Magnificently researched, Forgotten Warriors opens up and heightens intellectual landscapes . . . it could not be more timely The Monthly Magazine
Lively and vivid Wall Street Journal

Sarah Percy is Associate Professor at the University of Queensland. She was formerly Fellow in International Relations at Merton College, Oxford, where she was on the steering committee of the Oxford Programme on the Changing Character of War. Author and presenter of an acclaimed ABC radio series on the Cold War, her acclaimed previous book, Mercenaries, examined another unconventional military history, over multiple locations, from the medieval period until the present day. This is her first trade book.

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