Gender,Memory and Social Power

Two books are reviewed here, the first, by a historian of western Europe, Elisabeth van Houts, the second by a Byzantinist, Lynda Garland. Aspects of van Houts's book discussed are: the complementary roles of women and men in the production of historical writing; the role of women in the transmission of oral testimony, especially on genealogies and on property rights claimed through women; and the gender‐specificity of women's transmission of valued objects. The book's contributions to the history of the family are stressed. Lynda Garland's treatment of a series of Byzantine empresses is appreciated as informative, but criticised for lack of reference to historiography on medieval female rulership in western Europe, and insufficient analysis of structural features of the Byzantine polity. A brief conclusion reflects on gender and power in early medieval east and west.