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Hatshepsut, the daughter of a general who took Egypt's throne without status as a king's son and a mother with ties to the previous dynasty, was born into a privileged position of the royal household. Married to her brother, she was expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her father's family. Her failure to produce a male heir was ultimately the twist of fate that paved the way for her inconceivable rule as a cross-dressing king. Hatshepsut was a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays with the veil of piety and sexual expression. Just as women today face obstacles from a society that equates authority with masculinity, Hatshepsut had to shrewdly operate the levers of a patriarchal system to emerge as Egypt's second female pharaoh.
Scholars have long speculated as to why her images were destroyed soon after her death, all but erasing evidence of her rule. Constructing a rich narrative using the artifacts that remain, noted Egyptologist Kara Cooney offers a remarkable interpretation of how Hatshepsut rapidly but methodically consolidated power-and why she fell from public favor just as quickly.
About the author
Kara Cooney is an associate professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at UCLA in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. In 2005, she was co-curator of
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Cooney produced a comparative archaeology series with her husband, Neil Crawford, entitled
Out of Egypt, which aired in 2009 on the Discovery Channel and is streaming on Netflix.
Summary
The audacious rise to power of a female pharaoh in a man’s world
Report
'An entertaining and well-researched biography on a lesser-known - but no less influential and powerful Egyptian woman'.
History Revealed
