Wallach does a masterly job at covering the influences of Bell’s upbringing on her personality and life choices without resorting to the discredited methods of psychohistory. She covers closely her personal metamorphosis from obedient Victorian daughter of an wealthy industrialist to a modern self-determined woman who qualified as what she termed a Person with a capital “P”. Lawrence during the war for helping foment and support Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks and for her collaboration with him to get Faisal placed first on the throne of Syria and later Mesopotamia (aka Iraq).Įven without being Bell’s importance in world shaping, her story his worth experiencing in Wallach’s telling. Bell is best known for her work with T.E. Bell’s passion for the culture and peoples of the Middle East served the British Empire well for intelligence and liaison work during World War 1, and she had a major impact in setting the path toward Arab self-rule, most notably in the establishment of Iraq and Jordan under monarchies of the Hussein family. An excellent account of a fascinating woman who was both a product of her times and one who broke new ground for accomplishments in a male dominated world.
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