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Warrior Women: The Amazons of Dahomey and the Nature of War. By Robert B. Edgerton. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2000. ISBN 0-81333711-9. Map. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. vii, 196. $25.00.
This fascinating account of the warrior corps of female "Amazons" of the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the nineteenth century is a reminder that many of our modern stereotypes regarding the supposed inability of women to wage war with courage and ferocity need to be held up to historical scrutiny. Professor Edgerton demonstrates, in this well researched and documented book, that the women warriors of Dahomey were the elite force of the army of the king, that they were considered to be superior to the male soldiers of Dahomey in battle, and that they were a professional elite which fought the enemies of their beloved King with incredible bravery and fanaticism. Edgerton's book is a response to the noted military historian John Keegan's assertion, in...