On his book The Rise of Female Kings in Europe, 1300-1800
Cover Interview of January 18, 2012
Lastly
One of the most satisfying aspects of this book is that it has been possible to complete it at a time when one can combine old-fashioned historical research with the multiple resources available through the internet. I still explore a few dusty archives, read rare books in major western European languages, and inspect places in various countries that remain closely associated with long-ago women rulers. But I could never have sifted so much diverse written and pictorial information so efficiently without the internet.
It has also proved extremely helpful that during my professional lifetime, English has become the standard or default language for scholars throughout Europe as well as in other parts of the world.
In combination, these advantages offer optimum possibilities for deepening our comprehension of what these thirty women sovereigns could and could not do about commanding all-male political elites.
Although Europe’s female monarchs were much likelier than their male counterparts to abandon their grip on sovereignty, this work interprets Europe’s overall experience of female rule as a glass that is half-full rather than half-empty, I expect it to spark controversy; the Republic of Letters usually requires dialectical processes in order to produce incremental improvements.
I further realize that a 75-year-old man inevitably perceives many things differently from the mostly younger women who will probably comprise a majority of my readers. Nevertheless, I think being male helps me understand one vital problem about “female kings”: why were their orders routinely obeyed by entirely male political elites who had been conditioned to regard women as inherently inferior? My epiphany occurred on a transatlantic flight when a woman’s voice announced on the intercom, “This is your Captain speaking.” Captain is also a military rank, and every man on board knew that he should follow orders from someone with unquestionable credentials to call herself Captain Renée.
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
Lastly
One of the most satisfying aspects of this book is that it has been possible to complete it at a time when one can combine old-fashioned historical research with the multiple resources available through the internet. I still explore a few dusty archives, read rare books in major western European languages, and inspect places in various countries that remain closely associated with long-ago women rulers. But I could never have sifted so much diverse written and pictorial information so efficiently without the internet.
It has also proved extremely helpful that during my professional lifetime, English has become the standard or default language for scholars throughout Europe as well as in other parts of the world.
In combination, these advantages offer optimum possibilities for deepening our comprehension of what these thirty women sovereigns could and could not do about commanding all-male political elites.
Although Europe’s female monarchs were much likelier than their male counterparts to abandon their grip on sovereignty, this work interprets Europe’s overall experience of female rule as a glass that is half-full rather than half-empty, I expect it to spark controversy; the Republic of Letters usually requires dialectical processes in order to produce incremental improvements.
I further realize that a 75-year-old man inevitably perceives many things differently from the mostly younger women who will probably comprise a majority of my readers. Nevertheless, I think being male helps me understand one vital problem about “female kings”: why were their orders routinely obeyed by entirely male political elites who had been conditioned to regard women as inherently inferior? My epiphany occurred on a transatlantic flight when a woman’s voice announced on the intercom, “This is your Captain speaking.” Captain is also a military rank, and every man on board knew that he should follow orders from someone with unquestionable credentials to call herself Captain Renée.