This book uses the stories of early modern women in the Mediterranean who left their birthplaces; families; and religions to reveal the complex space women of the period occupied socially and politically. In the narrow sense; the word "renegade" as used in the early modern Mediterranean referred to a Christian who had abandoned his or her religion to become a Muslim. With Renegade Women; Eric R Dursteler deftly redefines and broadens the term to include anyone who crossed the era’s and region’s religious; political; social; and gender boundaries. Drawing on archival research; he relates three tales of women whose lives afford great insight into both the specific experiences and condition of females in; and the broader cultural and societal practices and mores of; the early Mediterranean. Through Beatrice Michiel of Venice; who fled an overbearing husband to join her renegade brother in Constantinople and took the name Fatima Hatun; Dursteler discusses how women could convert and relocate in order to raise their personal and familial status. In the parallel tales of the Christian Elena Civalelli and the Muslim Mihale Šatorović; who both entered a Venetian convent to avoid unwanted; arranged marriages; he finds courageous young women who used the frontier between Ottoman and Venetian states to exercise a surprising degree of agency over their lives. And in the actions of four Muslim women of the Greek island of Milos―Aissè; her sisters Eminè and Catigè; and their mother; Maria―who together left their home for Corfu and converted from Islam to Christianity to escape Aissè’s emotionally and financially neglectful husband; Dursteler unveils how a woman’s attempt to control her own life ignited an international firestorm that threatened Venetian-Ottoman relations. A truly fascinating narrative of female instrumentality; Renegade Women illuminates the nexus of identity and conversion in the early modern Mediterranean through global and local lenses. Scholars of the period will find this to be a richly informative and thoroughly engrossing read.
#77633 in Books Tyndale House Publishers 2012-01-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 1.20 x 5.80l; .95 #File Name: 1414364547368 pagesThe Big Book of American Trivia
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Serious flawsBy Meredith MMy husband and I really wanted to like this book -- we love doing trivia on long car trips (keeps the driver awake); and this seemed like a good replacement for the Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac; which we needed to take a break from after years of road-trip use (and by the way; the Trivia Almanac is a much; much better trivia book than this). But no amount of high hopes could make this book very good.First problem: the difficulty level is all over the place. A lot of the questions are too easy; which is made worse by the hints sometimes printed right after the question -- example: "What evening soap's November 21; 1980 episode was one of the top-rated TV shows of all time? (Hint: Who shot...?). I like the hint idea; but the person reading the question has no way to avoid the hint; so it just becomes an easy question whether you wanted it to be or not. And then there are questions that are hard; but not in a challenging way -- more of a "you would never ever know this unless you happened to live near there" way. It seemed that the author was often using a trivia question format not to create gettable questions; but simply to introduce nifty facts (of which there are plenty here) Obviously a good trivia book should have a range of difficulties; but this one rarely hit the "challenging but you can think it through to the right answer" sweet spot.Second problem: the questions aren't diverse enough. The entertainment questions (movies; TV; etc) skew heavily old -- a lot of questions about the 40s; 50s; 60s; not so many about the 80s; 90s; or 2000s (although my husband actually liked that; because he felt it broadened his horizons. My husband; by the way; is the reason this book gets 3 stars instead of the 2 I wanted to give it). I also often got the impression that the author found a resource about one particular topic and mined a whole bunch of questions from there. There are quite a few questions about Six Flags; for instance; and not just in the Theme Park section. Or the Theater section; which has 31 questions; 10 of which are about outdoor theater. Speaking of lack of diversity; in a different sense; there are 103 questions in the Things of the Spirit section -- and the number of questions about non-Christian religions? Two; I think: one about a "shrine" to Will Rogers; one about a wedding chapel.Third problem: topics and questions get repeated; sometimes word for word in different sections; sometimes slightly reworded on the same page. And it wasn't a fluke -- it happened fairly often.That said; I do have some nice things to say about this book. First off; the author often writes little explanations along with the answers; which is something I wish more trivia books did. Also; the book is nicely organized; with trivia arranged by topic; and some neat sections like 10 questions about each state and 15 or more questions about each decade from the 1910s to the 2000s (only a few questions about each state are actually good trivia questions; of course; but it was a nice thought). The layout and copy-editing were professional; which is sadly more than can be said about some trivia books we've used. But the bottom line is this: we were hugely frustrated trying to use this to quiz ourselves; and I ended up skipping lots of questions and rewriting others on the fly to make them more interesting/gettable. If you're looking for a big ol' trivia book to quiz yourself or others; I highly recommend Ken Jennings' s Trivia Almanac rather than this one. If you're looking for a book to page through to learn some interesting facts; without necessarily trying to quiz anyone; then this will work all right.14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Trivia for the Family!By Terri BrownI found this book today as a Kindle free download. All the reviews were positive ( 4 5 stars only).I started reading the book as soon as it was on my Kindle Fire. I love how the trivia questions have a blue link at the end of the question to lead you to the correct answer. That makes it so much easier when using this book as a game. My husband loves history; especially American history. This book will also help my oldest son with American history as we play this as a trivia game.I see my little family using this book as a family game on game night. I recommend this book to any history buff. Also to families for making this book into a game.5 out of 5 stars due to so many ways to use this book and learn American history at the same time.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Something to do when the 4th of July parade gets slow!By Art Grrrlthis is great fun! Made those slow parade moments go faster.
