I absolutely adore history. I can read about it and talk about for hours. To the delight and amusement of my friends and family.

History is especially enjoyable when it focuses on lesser known histories. Subjects and peoples that are often overlooked reflect a more accurate view of the past. You can’t understand the past if you only look at it from one point of view. That’s why books like Female Husbands are so important. The fact that this book has less than 500 ratings is surprising. Yes, it just came out in 2020, but there are many recent releases, even in nonfiction that have many more ratings.

Some nonfiction reads like fiction. This is not one of those stories. It reads more like a well-written thesis paper. This is not a bad thing. It focuses on the primary sources, and the author’s fact-based assertions. Which means it is focused on giving you facts, less on entertaining you. But it entertains nonetheless. The differing responses of the female husband’s communities were the most fascinating to me. The first community we learn about sentences the female husband to public whipping. The second community does not really seem to care. Their response is more of a “But they’re a cool dude who runs a pretty awesome tavern so who cares”.

There is, of course, more nuance in why the different communities respond in different ways. The fact, however, that there were people in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century who recognized the importance of those transing gender and seemed to treat them with respect and dignity speaks volumes. People who chose to trans gender are not a modern phenomenon. Everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and respect.

We do not know 100% if these people identified as trans or whether their identity was based in gender roles of the times. Either way, the lives of these historic individuals are fascinating, and you should definitely check this book out.