women warriors
Female Samurai: Warriors and Otherwise
Female samurais are stock figures in modern anime, manga, western comic books, and fantasy novels: hard-fighting, often hard-drinking, badasses with swords and bows. The key word is fantasy. In medieval Japan, samurai was a class distinction as well as a job description. Women who were born into the samurai class were samurais whether or not…
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Shin-kickers From History: Joan of Arc
Several months ago, I asked a group of family and friends to tell me what they knew about Joan of Arc, aka St. Joan, aka the Maid of Orleans–no stopping to look up the details. I needed to know how familiar the average smart, well-read, non-specialist is with her story.* The accuracy and detail of…
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Who Was The Most Successful Pirate in History*
Any guesses? Edward Teach, commonly known as Blackbeard? Captain Kidd? Captain Morgan?** Grace O Malley, aka the Pirate Queen? Sir Francis Drake?*** None of them are even close, though Drake has the distinction of capturing what may well have been the largest prize taken in a single raid: the Spanish galleon Cagafuego. The title goes…
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