Choice 评论
This is an especially comprehensive study of representations of the Amazon myth in various cultures and historical epochs. Weinbaum's range of knowledge is broad, and she does a thoughtful job of exploring the varied reasons for the existence of the Amazon myth in different cultures. The author (Cleveland State Univ.) focuses on "images of Amazons and islands of women in nineteenth- and twentieth-century polemic ... and popular culture, as well as in the pre-Greek, Greek, Roman, non-Western indigenous, Indian, Chinese, Pacific, medieval, and Renaissance worlds." A particular strength of the book is its examination of how the Amazon myth has been bought, sold, and packaged to US tourists in Mexico and South America, where it has been transformed from something with deep spiritual resonance to something to use as a design on a souvenir T-shirt. Weinbaum's exploration of the ways that the Amazon myth is used in US popular culture in everything from comic books about Wonder Woman to the television show Xena, Warrior Princess is also engaging and carefully researched. This book's large audience will include students of popular culture, mythology, women's history, and Latin American studies, as well as literature. S. A. Inness; Miami University