Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present

""If there is anything fine and ennobling in war, women share the glory. If war is atrocity, women share the guilt,"" writes historian De Pauw (Founding Mothers) by way of argument in her encyclopedic survey. Insofar as this book's plentiful anecdotes add up to a central point, it is that the search for an essential female pacifism is fruitless and ahistorical: ""every nation has a history of women in war"" despite an equally long tradition of sniggering and abuse. (Once it was said that ""all military women are whores,"" the author observes; today's amended version is ""All military women are either whores or dykes."") True, scorn for female ""camp followers"" performing both logistical and sexual services for male troops dates to the Crusades, but the range of stories here makes clear how varied women's roles have been. The Greeks considered victory over the invading Amazons ""their greatest triumph"", while women across the globe have disguised themselves and gone to fight (probably more than 600 during the American Civil War alone), saved lives as nurses or worked secretly as spies, partisans and guerrillas. Though the book never directly states its larger claims, the wealth of evidence it provides renders the controversy over women in combat almost quaint--their presence on and near the battlefield is ancient, inescapable and irreversible. (Oct.) FYI: Women War Heroines by George and Anne Forty will be published in September (Arms & Armour [Sterling, dist.], $27.95 208p ISBN 1-85409-397-5)