Book review: Angela Saini (2025). The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule. Thessaloniki: Salto Publications, Callistos Series.

Abstract

The book review written by Christina Grammatikopoulou on Angela Saini’s book focuses on the ways in
which the book dismantles the naturalisation of gender hierarchies and presents patriarchy as a historical
and cultural construct, consolidated through narratives of the past, scientific certainties, and political
strategies of power. Drawing on examples that range from archaeology and prehistory to the Cold War and
the contemporary conservative turn, the book demonstrates how Western models of social organisation
were retrospectively projected onto other periods and societies, rendering patriarchy self-evident and
inevitable. Particular emphasis is placed on the ways in which women’s emancipation has been framed as a
universal project, detached from class, cultural, and political conditions, as well as on the role played by
crises, wars, and ideological confrontations in the hardening of gendered stereotypes. Through this reading,
the review highlights Saini’s contribution to opening up a critical field of reflection on the contemporary
rise of anti-feminism and nationalist conservatism, underscoring the importance of localised, embodied, and
historically situated forms of feminist resistance.