I was really excited to read this, and when I was approved for it, I went to goodreads to add it as started reading--and was immediately cautious when I saw that the author, Paul Chrystal, had written over 120 books since 2010 (something he mentions on his own website). He has written 18 (!) in the last year alone. While not impossible,it's extremely difficult, especially for historical work where you want to do a lot of in-depth research and cross-referencing, so I was alert to the possibility of either AI sourcing or poor research. I initially was leaning towards AI, because I saw other reviews mentioning really strange errors (such as calling Jocasta the mother of Odysseus, not Oedipus). I went in with an open mind nevertheless and I'm fairly confident it isn't AI, based on the writing style. The introduction especially feels as if it's in an authorial voice.

However, as I read on, I realized that, unfortunately, he essentially took wikipedia articles and changed a few words here or there. For example, here is Baranamtarra's wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baranamtarra. The first lines are:

"In 2384 BCE, Baranamtarra and her husband, Lugalanda, seized power in Lagash, one of the oldest cities in Sumer. They became the largest landholders in the city, and Baranamtarra presided over a temple and several estates herself. Queen Baranamtarra managed her own private estates and those of the temple of the goddess Bau. She bought and sold slaves and sent diplomatic missions to neighboring states."

His section on Baranamtarra opens with a general description of her wielding exceptional power and then adds:

"In 2384 bce during the first dynasty of Lagash (c. 2500-2300 bce) Baranamtarra and her husband, Lugalanda, seized power in a coup in Lagash, one of the oldest cities in Sumer. The couple became the largest landholders in the city, while Baranamtarra managed her own private estates and those of the temple of the goddess Bau. She bought and sold slaves and sent diplomatic missions to neighbouring states."

I don't want to excerpt too heavily and risk this review getting copyright struck myself, but the rest of her section also matches nearly identically to the wikipedia page but for a couple of words changed (the same way "they became" turned into "the couple became"), or occasionally swapping around parts of a sentence.

The next section doesn't seem to be from wikipedia (though he sources another author here at least), but the section after, Ku-baba is, though broken up a little better:

His: "A legendary Mesopotamian queen who, according to the Sumerian King list, ruled over Kish for a hundred years before the rise of the dynasty of Akshak. Being a woman, her inclusion is unusual: while some modern authors refer to her as a queen, the Sumerian title applied to her is lugal ('king'), which had no feminine equivalent."

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubaba - "Kubaba was a legendary Mesopotamian queen who according to the Sumerian King List ruled over Kish for a hundred years before the rise of the dynasty of Akshak. [...] Kubaba is mentioned in the Sumerian King List, though due to her gender her inclusion is considered unusual. While some modern authors refer to her as a queen, the Sumerian title applied to her is lugal ("king"), which had no feminine counterpart."

Ditto the one after, Enheduanna:

His: "We celebrate Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon of Akkad founder of the Akkadian Empire, as the world's earliest known named author: a number of works in Sumerian literature, such as the Exaltation of Inanna, feature her as the firstperson narrator, and other works, like the Sumerian Temple Hymns, give her as their author although there is ongoing controversy over this."

Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enheduanna:): "Enheduanna has been celebrated as the earliest known named author in world history, as a number of works in Sumerian literature, such as the Exaltation of Inanna feature her as the first-person narrator, and other works, such as the Sumerian Temple Hymns may identify her as their author. However, there is considerable debate among modern Assyriologists based on linguistic and archaeological grounds as to whether or not she actually wrote or composed any of the rediscovered works that have been attributed to her. "

This books does a good job of rounding up a lot of information and is very readable. There's no category on wikipedia of "World-Changing Women", and he's added at least one who does not have their own pages on wikipedia, so he's done a good job rounding this up and summarizing this existing information. If this is something that would be useful to you, it's all here in one place. I personally will be DNFing this work, however.

This isn’t so much a book about women as it is a book about misogyny. It’s so insensitively written and full of microaggressions that I couldn’t get past the introduction. DNF.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

I had high hopes for World-Changing Women by Paul Chrystal, given its premise of exploring the lives of 150 historical women. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to expectations.

My first issue is the heavy focus on Greek and Roman women, who make up over half the book. While these figures are fascinating, they’re also some of the most well-known historical women. I understand they might be easier to research, but it was disappointing to see the promised focus on other areas, like Egypt and Israel, largely overlooked.

My second issue is the choppy narrative. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction from the author before diving into short paragraphs about individual women under headers. There’s no real connection or analysis tying these women together, which makes the book feel disjointed. Instead of a cohesive narrative that teaches about these women and their impact, it feels more like a collection of loosely related biographies.

The book claims to demonstrate how these women changed, informed, and significantly influenced their worlds, but it doesn’t deliver on that promise. While the concept is excellent, the execution leaves much to be desired.

World-Changing Women by Paul Chrystal is a book about the various important women of history. The author aims to educate the reader on the women who played a role in making history, whether it was by advising Kings or holding military positions. Others held importance through religion and virtue, but what all had in common was that oftentimes men in their societies tried to subdue them or question their capabilities solely based on sexist stereotypes.

The author mentions familiar names such as Cleopatra, Clytemnestra, Hera, and Athena, and other various women from different cultures.
The author highlights multiple examples of men in positions of power, who abuse said power and inflict pain on women. One particular story I enjoyed mentioned in this book is Clytemnestra's, because originally she is portrayed as vengeful, scheming and complex. Origin stories narrated by men are quick to point out her murder of her husband , but don't point out her motivations for seeking revenge. History would make it seem that it's justifiable to make women suffer, so the author seeks to educate on the contributions of these women in hopes to destroy these stigmas.

Some held higher positions then others, but thanks to these pioneers we are one step closer. I did enjoy the information in this book, but not in this format. Recommended for anyone interested in learning more about history making women, I would rate this 3.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Paul Chrystal for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this book but as much as I liked this book I wanted to love it. The book is made up of summaries varying in length about women from ancient Israel, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. I love learning history, especially about women throughout history, but I don’t know why but the book lacked something for me. There’s plenty of great information but I found a lot of it surface level and lacking. The book left me wanting to learn more about the fascinating women featured. It felt the author barely touched the surface of the women he wrote about. 

Another small critique for me is the placement of the pictures. While I loved the photos included at the back of the book, I wish they had been scattered throughout the book instead. I would help to have them alongside the relevant sections which would break up the writing and made it easier to remember the women being discussed. With all the images grouped at the end, it was harder to remember who each woman was, which is a shame as they all deserve to be remembered. That said, I enjoyed it overall but I wouldn’t recommend it unless someone is particularly interested in women in ancient history.

Thank you to NetGalley for World-Changing Women.

I thought this was decent. I did learn a ton of new information about a variety of women from history. There were some people I knew a lot about and some I had never heard of.

I did think there were some pivotal stories about some of the women that weren't included and some things that I believe were incorrect (specifically in the Greek section). I also struggled a little with the formatting. It felt repetitive because it was the same thing 150 times and it got kind of hard to keep going.

I think it was a very impressive amount of detail but I think it would have benefitted from including fewer people. But, I still generally enjoyed it. 3 Stars!

Such an enjoyable and captivating read about real life strong female characters or women in history which left a huge impact in the society/world. Thank you so much NetGalley for approving the arc. I learned a lot. This is well researched and engaging read.

I enjoyed this work, it was well researched, formatted and interesting topics. I appreciated the use of sources.

I would however have liked more discussion in the work, since this book seemed more like a encyclopedia than a non fiction work.

Real rating 3,5

Thank you to the author and publisher for giving me access to this book early.

‘Nature made me a woman, but I have raised myself to rival the greatest of men.’ Semiramis

An interesting read on women throughout history.

150 women featured from the classical world, to ancient Egypt and the anonymous warrior woman of the Isles of Scilly.

A great read to dip in and out of, the author also provides further reading for many of the woman mentioned in this book.

‘If no man will step up, get out of the way!’ Onomaris

My only issue is that this felt a little repetitive.

I was very excited to read this, many others have tried to do things in a similar vein, and I often find them to be lacking in depth and/or diversity of the women represented. The expansive number of 15o while restricting the geographical area the women came from, gave me hope. And it did a great job at educating me on many women and stories I had not previously heard of. I enjoyed the stories being about both individual women and groups of women, but I still felt that it was more of list and not very deep, though I understand the historical record of women has not been kept very detailed.
The writing was a mix of academic and more casual comments, that I enjoyed, but likely won't be for every one.
I realised did not fully read the subtitle, and wasn't aware it was going to focus on Isreal as well. The only comment I have about that is the references to "biblical Isreal" is false, as there is no such thing.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for an Advanced Reader Copy - pub date 11/30/2024. I have to admit that this book was both more and less of what I expected and hoped for. If you are looking for a breezily written collection of snippets about accomplished women that you can read in between errands or when you need a giggle, this is not it. It is closer to Sherlock Holmes' Who's Who Book - a very comprehensive list of women in ancient Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome - bare facts, not really any embellishment, just treating these extraordinary lives as simple reality. Which, to be fair, some of these little known ladies don't have extensive records but all deserve a nod and respect. There is no honest way to expand some of these entries without edging into fiction. Chrystal has compiled a very impressive list, kept to the known details, and provided a very thorough bibliography for further reading. It is quite a feat and interesting. However, it is not a chatty book and the only color is presented by the women themselves; Chrystal keeps it strictly to the straight-forward. Frankly, the cover is the most poetic thing about the book. That is not bad, of course. It is good to have such a list in one place and I learned about a lot of women who were new to me. I have new names to learn about! But this is definitely a dry read and more something to inspire forward rather than revel in on its own. I still suggest it if you're looking for a good place to start!

150 World-Changing Women is a collection of short summaries about some of history's most famous and influential women. The summaries vary in length based on the amount of information and historical records available, but they act as good jumping-off points for those who want to do some further research.
Despite the interesting information and wealth of sources, the book contained quite a few inaccuracies and inconsistencies (i.e., citing Medea as the sister of Circe and not her niece, or naming Jocasta as the mother of Odysseus and not the mother of Oedipus). The narrative structure was also a little choppy and hard to follow at times.
Overall, this book was really interesting and provides a lot of basic information about some of the major figures in history, both real and mythological such as Penelope, Helen of Troy, Agrippina, Cleopatra VII, etc. I enjoyed the context provided for each figure so the reader can understand the actions of these figures and truly grasp their historical significance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for the eARC!

Julius Cesar, Alexandra The Great, Napoleon, Aristotle.... the list of so-called 'Great Men' of history seems never-ending but what about the great women? What about those - seemingly - nameless women who helped to create and change the world that we live in today? That list is equally long, but sadly, far from well known. Thankfully, the latest book from Paul Chrystal, "World Changing Women" aims to correct this error. In this short publication (and I do wish it was several hundred pages longer so I could read in greater depth of these incredible women), Chrystal provides a brief intro to the lives and achievements of 150 women. Many of them barely remembered now, yet they have shaped our world.
Chrystal recounts names dating from the 24th century (BC) such as Barabamtarra, responsible for trade with neighbouring states. The famous or infamous Medusa and unfortunate Mary Magdalen. There is a wonderful range of women, throughout the centuries. There impact on our world is undoubtable and should not be forgotten.
A fantastic read, I just wish it was longer.

What a wonderful book!!! I loved the book and all the stories in it, I will be buying several copies to give to people that I know will love it as much as I did!!

I adore how most of the women covered were ones I had not heard of. This is very historical and looks at what is known. I like this as a resource and a primer for how to research these particular women.

Arc copy received through NetGalley

This was extremely boring. There is no narrative here and the structuring of the different entries felt wonky. Almost none of the women had a satisfying ending to their stories, they just ended whenever the most interesting part of their life ended. Also, sorry to some of the women included, some of them were certainly not 'world-changing' and the ones that actually changed the world had short entrees, as 'they are famous, no need for further information in this book'.

I really enjoyed reading this book, but I wish there were some illustrations or other pictures in this book next to the actual essays/paragraphs of the women to make it less academic feeling. I liked the further reading at the end of (almost) everyone woman described in the book. 3.5/5

I really enjoyed getting to learn about women in history that weren’t the popular and always talked about people. Paul Chrystal wrote this in a way that was engaging and you learned as you went. I’m so glad I got to read this as it was great learning about the 150 women in this book.

Generally, I avoid reading books on female history written from a male perspective, but I wanted to give this one a fair chance. Unfortunately, despite its subject, the focus still feels distinctly male, and it’s not resonating with me the way I’d hoped. I’ve given it a good try, but I’m ready to set it aside.

An amazing series of articles regarding famous women from history, from ancient Sumerian and Assyrian women, to Christian saints,