Turning away from the privileged world of the "eminent Victorians," Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) explored, mapped, and excavated the world of the Arabs. Recruited by British intelligence during World War I, she played a crucial role in obtaining the loyalty of Arab leaders, and her connections and information provided the brains to match T.E. Lawrence's brawn. After the war, she played a major role in creating the modern Middle East and was, at the time, considered the most powerful woman in the British Empire. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Acknowledgments	xi
Maps	xiv
Prologue	xxi
Part I A Victorian
1 Of Great and Honored Stock	3
2 A Man's World	19
3 An Ill-Fated Marriage	26
4 Flight	38
5 First Steps in the Desert	44
6 A Different Challenge	58
7 The Desert and the Sown	66
8 Women's Rights	81
9 Lawrence	84
10 Dick	95
11 Toward Hayil	107
12 Prisoner in Arabia	121
13 Rumblings of War	129
14 A Tragic End	136
15 Escape to the East	144
16 A Remarkably Clever Woman	157
Part II The Khatun
17 A Messy Situation	169
18 An Independent Woman	181
19 Baghdad	193
20 Disarray	207
21 Paris and the Arab Question	218
22 The Arab Mood	233
23 A Change of Thinking	240
24 Desert Storms	246
25 A Taste of England	255
26 The Clash	262
27 An Unpleasant Victory	269
28 Cox Returns	279
29 The Cairo Conference	290
30 Resistance	302
31 Faisal	310
32 The King	322
33 Ken	333
34 Farewell to Cox	342
35 Troubles	351
36 To Sleep	359
Epilogue	373
Afterword to the Anchor Books Edition	379
The Hashemite Family of Sharif Hussein of Mecca	385
Glossary	387
Endnotes	389
Bibliography	399
Index	409

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.