Kara Cooney

Discover the engrossing story of Ancient Egypts longest-reigning female pharaoh and her audacious rise to power in a mans worldHatshepsuts story provides all the ingredients required of a modern bestseller well-researched hugely enjoyable. Mail on SundayHatshepsut, the daughter of a general who had usurped the throne of Egypt, was born into a privileged position within the royal household. Married off to her own brother, she was expected to bear sons who would legitimize the reign of her fathers family. But she failed to produce a male heir. Such was the twist of fate that paved the way for her own scarcely believable rule: she ascended to the throne as a king.Over a spectacular twenty-two-year reign, Hatshepsut proved herself a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays with a veil of piety and sexual reinvention. Just as women today face obstacles from a society that equates authority with masculinity, Hatshepsut had to operate the levers of a patriarchal system to emerge as Egypts second female pharaoh.Scholars have long speculated as to why her images were violently destroyed within a few decades of her death, all but erasing evidence of her rule. Constructing a rich narrative history using the sources that remain, noted Egyptologist Kara Cooney offers a remarkable interpretation of how Hatshepsut rapidly but methodically consolidated power and why she fell from public favour just as quickly. The Woman Who Would Be King traces the unconventional life of a female pharaoh and explores our complicated reactions to women in power.With rigorous scholarship and a lively sense of sisterhood, Cooney retrieves Hatshepsut in her own times and liberates her as a woman for ours. The TimesEngrossing and compulsively readable. TIME Magazine

Con su característico estilo punzante y lúcido, Kara Cooney ofrece un análisis en profundidad sobre los mecanismos del poder que nos transporta al corazón del antiguo Egipto para desentrañar uno de los grandes enigmas de la historia humana: ¿por que las civilizaciones tienden a entregar su destino a unos pocos elegidos?Con la maestria de una egiptologa de renombre mundial, Cooney traza un viaje fascinante a traves de cinco reinados que marcaron el devenir de una de las civilizaciones mas poderosas de la antiguedad. Desde Jufu, el constructor de la Gran Piramide, hasta Taharqa, el ultimo gran faraon que lucho por restaurar la gloria de Egipto, cada gobernante se convierte en una ventana para comprender los mecanismos del poder absoluto.La obra nos sumerge en las estrategias de control de Sesostris III, la revolucion religiosa de Akenaton y la expansion imperial de Ramses II, para revelar como estos lideres no solo moldearon su tiempo, sino que establecieron patrones de dominacion que resuenan hasta nuestros dias. Con una narrativa que equilibra el rigor academico y la pasion divulgativa, Cooney nos invita a reflexionar sobre un fenomeno que trasciende las fronteras del tiempo: ¿por que las sociedades, una y otra vez, parecen elegir el autoritarismo sobre la libertad?Mas alla de ser un libro de historia, Faraones es un provocador analisis de la naturaleza humana, un espejo donde contemplar nuestras propias dinamicas sociales y politicas. Un viaje fascinante que nos permite comprender como el poder se construye, se mantiene y se transforma, desde los margenes del Nilo hasta nuestras democracias contemporaneas.

An engrossing biography of the longest-reigning female pharaoh in Ancient Egypt and the story of her audacious rise to power. Hatshepsutthe daughter of a general who usurped Egypts thronewas expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her fathers family. Her failure to produce a male heir, however, paved the way for her improbable rule as a cross-dressing king. At just over twenty, Hatshepsut out-maneuvered the mother of Thutmose III, the infant king, for a seat on the throne, and ascended to the rank of pharaoh.Shrewdly operating the levers of power to emerge as Egypts second female pharaoh, Hatshepsut was a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays in the veil of piety and sexual reinvention. She successfully negotiated a path from the royal nursery to the very pinnacle of authority, and her reign saw one of Ancient Egypts most prolific building periods.Constructing a rich narrative history using the artifacts that remain, noted Egyptologist Kara Cooney offers a remarkable interpretation of how Hatshepsut rapidly but methodically consolidated powerand why she fell from public favor just as quickly. The Woman Who Would Be King traces the unconventional life of an almost-forgotten pharaoh and explores our complicated reactions to women in power.

Con su característico estilo punzante y lúcido, Kara Cooney ofrece un análisis en profundidad sobre los mecanismos del poder que nos transporta al corazón del antiguo Egipto para desentrañar uno de los grandes enigmas de la historia humana: ¿por que las civilizaciones tienden a entregar su destino a unos pocos elegidos?Con la maestria de una egiptologa de renombre mundial, Cooney traza un viaje fascinante a traves de cinco reinados que marcaron el devenir de una de las civilizaciones mas poderosas de la antiguedad. Desde Jufu, el constructor de la Gran Piramide, hasta Taharqa, el ultimo gran faraon que lucho por restaurar la gloria de Egipto, cada gobernante se convierte en una ventana para comprender los mecanismos del poder absoluto.La obra nos sumerge en las estrategias de control de Sesostris III, la revolucion religiosa de Akenaton y la expansion imperial de Ramses II, para revelar como estos lideres no solo moldearon su tiempo, sino que establecieron patrones de dominacion que resuenan hasta nuestros dias. Con una narrativa que equilibra el rigor academico y la pasion divulgativa, Cooney nos invita a reflexionar sobre un fenomeno que trasciende las fronteras del tiempo: ¿por que las sociedades, una y otra vez, parecen elegir el autoritarismo sobre la libertad?Mas alla de ser un libro de historia, Faraones es un provocador analisis de la naturaleza humana, un espejo donde contemplar nuestras propias dinamicas sociales y politicas. Un viaje fascinante que nos permite comprender como el poder se construye, se mantiene y se transforma, desde los margenes del Nilo hasta nuestras democracias contemporaneas.