Carolyn Meyer, author of best-selling ROYAL DIARIES Isabel and Anastasia, now brings to the series this compelling story of Kristina, The Girl King, from 17th-century Sweden. Upon discovering that their newborn infant was, in fact, female and not male as first thought, Queen Marie Eleonore wailed inconsolably and King Gustavus Adolphus declared, nevertheless, that the child be raised as a prince. At age six, upon the death of her father, the child Kristina, was proclaimed King of Sweden, with regents assigned to council until she assumes the throne at age eighteen. And indeed, her life followed her father's plan. We meet Kristina when she's almost twelve years old and eschewing feminine practices but reveling in the study of military tactics,

Pop culture portrayals of medieval and early modern monarchs are rife with tension between authenticity and modern mores, producing anachronisms such as a feminist Queen Isabel (in RTVE’s Isabel) and a lesbian Queen Christina (in The Girl King). This book examines these anachronisms as a dialogue between premodern and postmodern ideas about gender and sexuality, raising questions of intertemporality, the interpretation of history, and the dangers of presentism. Covering a range of famous and lesser-known European monarchs on screen, from Elizabeth I to Muhammad XII of Granada, this book addresses how the lives of powerful women and men have been mythologized in order to appeal to today’s audiences. The contributors interrogate exactly what is at stake in these portrayals; namely, our understanding of premodern rulers, the gender and sexual ideologies they navigated, and those that we navigate today.

Discover the lives and locations of trailblazing women who changed the course of history as you journey to the heart of women's activism, history and creativity through the ages. From the temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt and Empress Dowager Cixi's summer palace in Beijing, to the homes and meeting sites of suffragette heroes Sylvia Pankhurst and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the creative workrooms of Frida Kahlo and Virginia Woolf, and the tennis courts where the Williams sisters first learned to play - we showcase female pioneers whose lives and actions continue to inspire today. In Her Footsteps is not only a celebration of incredible women, but a travel guide to the places where they studied, lived, worked, reigned and explored. We'll tell you where to find the secret feminist history of sites around the world. Activists include: Icons include: Artists include: Trailblazers include: About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, on mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

Clothes are central to lesbian history, and lesbians are central to fashion history. The way we dress can help us show who we are, or hide ourselves; make us into a community, or make us stand out from the crowd. Yet "lesbian fashion" is often strangely overlooked. Without this story of self-expression, what are we missing about the culture and status of queer women? The lesbian past is slippery: it has often been deliberately hidden, edited or left unrecorded. Unsuitable restores to style history and queer history the fascinating, ever-changing tale of modern lesbian dress, from top hats to violet tiaras. This story spans centuries and countries, from "Gentleman Jack" in nineteenth-century Yorkshire and Queen Christina of seventeenth-century Sweden, to Paris modernism, genderqueer Berlin, butch/femme bar culture and 1980s activists, via drag kings, the Suffragettes, the Harlem Renaissance and the power of slogan tees. This book is a kaleidoscope of the margins and the mainstream, celebrating trans lesbian histories, Black lesbian histories, and histories of gender-nonconformity. You don't have to be queer or fashionable to be enthralled by this hidden history of minority identity. In Unsuitable, Eleanor Medhurst lights it up for the world to see, in all its finery.

A team of specialists addresses a foundational concept as central to early modern thinking as to our own: that the past is always an important part of the present.