AMAZONS AND MILITARY MAIDS: WOMEN WHO DRESSED AS MEN IN PURSUIT OF LIFE LIBERTY AND HAPPINESS.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE+/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price- clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated,colour photographic and colour pictorial illustrated dw/dj panels,with red+white lettering to front; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no major nicks or tears present.Head of spine/backstrip of dw/dj with 2 tiny snicks and reciprocal creasing; also with minimal sunning/fading to the red in the lettering used;some minor,light,superficial scoring/indents mostly to rear panel,but without penetration and without affecting the boards beneath.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean, solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean, sharp-cornered,publisher's original plain black cloth boards with bright, crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,viii-xvpp+2-205pp [paginated] includes a poem (A Vagrant Heart - Dora Sigerson Shorter,1907),illus list/table,acknowledgements,6 chapters,24pp historical,contemporary b/w illustrations and b/w photographs in 3 blocks of 8pp apiece,between pp50/1,pp82/3 and pp114/15 respectively,selected biographies,notes,a selected bibliograhy and an index' plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,contents list/table,and 4pp blanks at the rear. Women who have dressed as men to embark on a grand adventure,to search for a lost husband or simply to escape the dull confines of domestic life,have enjoyed a long and popular tradition in Western culture.From Newcastle to New Brunswick,folksongs and ballads have celebrated these intrepid heroines who defied all expectations of the weaker sex.Reporters, biographers,street performers and the women themselves churned out versions of the female warrior's adventures on the high seas and in battle. Julie Wheelwright recreates and explains the fascination of the female warrior which captivated young women and even inspired some to undertake similar exploits.Drawing on memoirs,letters,diaries and historical archives,and illustrating her examples with rare sketches and photographs,she traces the career of dozens of women who lived as men.Many,like Valerie Arkell-Smith,who as Colonel Barker passed for a British Army Officer,courted and eventually married a Miss Elfreda Haward,became 'male' in almost every sense.Others,such as Christian Davies,Ireland's most famous 18thC soldier,received poems from adoring women who claimed that 'the Amazonian race begins again'.Emma Edmonds,who left her fiance and native Canada to fight in the American Civil War;Hannah Snell,a sailor in the Royal Navy; Maria Bochkareva,a private in the Tsar's Army; and Captain Flora Sandes,hero of the Serbian Army who toured Australia,thrilling her audiences with tales of bravery and patriotism,are some of the intriguing and rebellious women 'Amazons and Military Maids' brings to light.But Julie Wheelwright also exposes the tensions that these women who lived,worked and played as men came to accept as the price of their tentative freedom.They struggled with the contradictions of harbouring both 'male' and 'female' identities within themselves.Although these women have been the stuff of myths and legends for centuries only very recently have their stories been treated as important clues to understanding changing sexual roles,patriotism and the idealogy of war and peace.'Amazons and Military Maids' follows the evolution of the virago in breeches from the height of her popularity in the 1700s to her re-emergence as the nation's pride and joy during the First World War.The female warrior's challenge to convention,the way in which her experience is constantly transformed over time to accommodate appropriate concepts of masculinity and femininity,and how women fare in all-male environments,are just a few of the insights her story offers. Since April 2013,again in March 2015,and in this year too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template,altering it's prices, weight allowances,dimensions and lowered it's qualifying compensation rates too! So,please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,because of the weight/value of this item for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!