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A fascinating study of two centuries of British women's travel to the Middle East provides new perspectives for understanding the history of colonialism.
". . . this stimulating and well-researched book shows how women not only perceived the Middle East differently from their male contemporaries but also used their travels to reflect on their own subordination in English society."
---Choice
". . . an important consideration of European women travelers' writings on the Middle East. It provides a rich and detailed interpretation of a feminine version of the Orient, a version distinct from those written by men."
---Middle Eastern Studies Association Bulletin
". . . adds a significant empirical and conceptual element to the discussion of orientalism with its focus on gender bias and gender blindness. . . . Historians of the period will be grateful for the real substance she has given to women as cultural and social agents with distinctive lives and opinions, just as those concerned with orientalism and discourse will welcome any modification of the masculism of much of that analysis. Those interested in women's history, in the cultural politics of cross-cultural encounters and in feminist or cultural theory will find much to engage them, inform them and challenge them."
---Times Higher Education Supplement
"A must for anyone interested in women's history, both English and Middle Eastern. It is well written and well argued and effectively does what it promises to do, which is show how different Englishwomen presented different pictures of what they saw, at different epochs, and how what they saw depended on who they were."
---International History Review
Billie Melman is Lecturer in Modern History, Tel Aviv University.
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5-1/2 x 8-1/2, 440 pagesISBN 0-472-08279-5
paper 16.95E
Aygust