A Few Good Women: America's Military Women from World War I to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by Evelyn M. Monahan

A Few Good Women: America's Military Women from World War I to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Reviews

• 
  Ann-Marie

  I started reading this book because during the Vietnam war several of my nursing school friends joined the army and because I had the opportunity to work at several VA Hospitals. I also have an interest in how women move forward in professions that normally are male dominated.
  
  I was disappointed in this book because, although it is factually accurate, it is such dull reading that it ought to be listed as a reference book rather than a book one would want to read from cover to cover. The stories of each of the women could be fascinating; however, they just do not com to life in this book. I finally put it down & decided not to finish it.
• 
  Rosemary

  This is a great book full of interesting facts about women's roles in the military from WWI to Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I especially appreciated knowing about women who were highly qualified to lead military lives and the severe resistance they faced in getting appointments.
  The book spoke of individual women's success stories. It also enlightened me to some of the bad political choices at the time of the Iraq war that enabled certain misfit and dangerous men to join the military when they never should have been anywhere in society, much less in the military, where they raped and killed innocent women.
  I really liked the book as a whole, but I wish I had known that the ton of Abbreviations used were listed in the BACK of the book. It should have been in the front so the reader would know that they were listed. Without this list, some parts of the reading weren't too clear. Hence the 4 stars instead of 5. Read it by all means but know to look in the BACK of the book when you forget the many abbreviations. Unless you've been in the service, you probably won't know most!
• 
  Norma

  As expected it was very pro-American but not propagandistic. My main issue is that it was boring to the core. At first I could sort of enjoy the first stories about women in the world wars but after Vietnam it was more of the same and just wanted to get through it.
  One good aspect is that the writers were not blind to Bush's administration and the mistakes that the military have committed but it wasn't enough, at least from my perspective as a non-American.
  Maybe this is only for military enthusiasts and Americans who are still proud of a very stained institution.
• 
  Jan Jordan

  This book is a real eye opener about sexism in the military. A few too many statistics but the story itself is enlightning. What our nurses and women went through with no credit whatsoever will anger you.
• 
  Matthew Russell

  This was a highly informative read; while the subject matter went far beyond what I needed it for, I found myself finishing the book anyway.
• 
  Allison

  I really enjoyed this book as a great tool for knowledge of women in the US armed forces. It was easy and interesting to read. There are a couple criticisms I have, however: the later wars are kinda skimped on, there is too little discussion of women in the later wars, and someone obviously lost interest and stopped proofing by the last part of the text. Though I largely agree with what the authors have to say at the end, I feel it was preachy and sloppy. I want to know more about how women are integral to the contemporary military. If they are mostly regarded as an average soldier, awesome, so be it; but the authors never explicitly state anything. I do still plan to read more by them, as this was about a 3/4-excellently written work, and their chosen subjects seem interesting
• 
  Jessica

  The problems begin with the lack of a table of contents, symbolic of the overall lack of structure and organization (although the authors are not professional historians, the editor should have addressed this larger coherence issue). The reader is left to meander through the book on their own. While it has potential (mainly the interviews) and the story of military women is one that needs to be told, this book is exceedingly frustrating to use and lacks historical chronology and context.
• 
  Tiffany

  The amount of history is amazing. To think of what women did only 60+ years ago and the crap we're still having to deal with in 2012, I am so very great full for those first women broke down the barriers so we could have success today!
  On the flip side the book isn't organized too well and the chapters should have had the dates or at least have been separated by war period time frames.
• 
  Terra Ingersoll

  Would be better without all the political comments at the end
• 
  Meredith

  I wanted this to be good. Such a shame that it's not. A disorganized mess.