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Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations | Georgina Howell
3 posts | 6 read | 5 to read
A marvelous tale of an adventurous life of great historical importShe has been called the female Lawrence of Arabia, which, while not inaccurate, fails to give Gertrude Bell her due. She was at one time the most powerful woman in the British Empire: a nation builder, the driving force behind the creation of modern-day Iraq. Born in 1868 into a world of privilege, Bell turned her back on Victorian society, choosing to read history at Oxford and going on to become an archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author (of Persian Pictures, The Desert and the Sown, and many other collections), poet, photographer, and legendary mountaineer (she took off her skirt and climbed the Alps in her underclothes).She traveled the globe several times, but her passion was the desert, where she traveled with only her guns and her servants. Her vast knowledge of the region made her indispensable to the Cairo Intelligence Office of the British government during World War I. She advised the Viceroy of India; then, as an army major, she traveled to the front lines in Mesopotamia. There, she supported the creation of an autonomous Arab nation for Iraq, promoting and manipulating the election of King Faisal to the throne and helping to draw the borders of the fledgling state. Gertrude Bell, vividly told and impeccably researched by Georgina Howell, is a richly compelling portrait of a woman who transcended the restrictions of her class and times, and in so doing, created a remarkable and enduring legacy.
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led567
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Top-notch biography, a page-turner which really brought the subject to life with excellent use of primary sources.

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Who in tarnation doesn't know the size of a book? I'm sorry, but this is dumb af. #thanksamazon #arealdinger

Well-ReadNeck 😂😂😂 8y
18 likes1 comment
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ApoptyGina69
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For this week's #FunFridayPhoto I offer you this #biography of the amazing Gertrude Bell. The cover shows her on camel-back in 1921 flanked by Churchill and TE Lawrence. She climbed K2, she worked in British Intelligence in WW1, she spoke Arabic, and traveled the Mesopotamian desert with Bedouins. All in all, a spectacular and remarkable women for her, and all, time.

LeahBergen Yes!!! 👍🏼👍🏼 8y
CherylDeFranceschi Love this book! 8y
Dragon I read an interesting fictionalization of this photo, you might be interested in it 8y
38 likes4 stack adds3 comments