HQ1728.5.S76

Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-240) and index

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 000 2. "The Bible Was Our Handbook and Guide": Women's Travel Writing and the English-Palestinian Encounter 000 3. Harems, Festivals, and Clothes: Materiality and the English-Palestinian Encounter 000 4. Missions and More: Making a Home in the Holy Land 000 5. Things Go Wrong: Failure at the Protestant Orphanage at Nazareth 000 6. A Refracted Gaze: Palestinian Women Reading the English 000 Conclusion 000 Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Index 000 Acknowledgments As I face the end of what has been a long journey of inquiry and creativity, I have many organizations and people to thank for making it possible for me to publish this book. I have lived with the narratives and personalities presented here for the better part of a decade, and my travels in pursuit of their stories have been literally and figuratively vast. Many archivists and librarians on three continents have my gratitude for their tireless assistance in my hunt for sources. In the United Kingdom, I would like to thank the trustees of the Ashmolean Museum Library, Oxford; the Bristol Record Office; the British Library, London; the Buckinghamshire Record Office, Aylesbury; the Hertfordshire Record Office, Hertford; the Women's Library (then the Fawcett Library at the London Guildhall University); the National Register of Archives, London; the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Leopold Muller Memorial Library, Oxford University; the Bodleian Library, Oxford University; the Palestine Exploration Fund, London; the Royal Geographical Society, London; the Middle East Centre Library, St. Antony's College, Oxford University; the Middle East Centre Personal Papers Collection, St. Antony's College, Oxford University; the University of Birmingham Main Library, Special Collections; the University of Southampton, Hartley Library, Special Collections; and the University of Liverpool, Special Collections and Archives. In Jerusalem, I would like to thank the trustees of the Central Zionist Archive; Christ Church; the Humanities and Social Sciences Library of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus; the Israel Trust for the Anglican Church; the Jewish National and University Library, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram; and the Yad Ben Zvi Library, Jerusalem. Greater than the books and papers I consulted was the impact made upon me by the women who opened up their homes and personal histories to me during interviews about their lives in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Florida. I can only extend to them my undying gratitude, and my enduring hopes that their homeland finds some semblance of peace in the years to come. In the United States, the librarians of the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Central Florida, and the University of North Texas have my thanks for making it possible for me to fill in all of the details. I have been assisted financially by a number of institutions and programs, and without their help, I would not have been able to conduct the research or complete this work. Thank you to the Fulbright Commission; the University of California at Santa Barbara Department of History; the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies; the Social Science Research Council, Harvard University; the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin; the UCSB History Associates (including Professor Stephen Hay and the family of J. Bruce Anderson); the Faculty of Theology at Leiden University; the UCSB Graduate Division; the UCSB Center for Middle East Studies; the King Abdul Aziz al-Saud endowment; the College of Arts and Sciences and the Provost's Office at the University of Central Florida; the UCF Department of History; and the State of California. This work began at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and I owe a world of gratitude to my mentors and friends at that fantastic institution. Nancy E. Gallagher always amazes me with her undying energy, professionalism, encouragement, and knowledge, and I thank her deeply for being my professor and providing me with an outstanding model of the kind of intellectual I would like to become--a person whose deep social activism and commitment to justice infuses all professional activities and perspectives. I must also thank Erika D. Rappaport, a scholar whose rigor and standards are as high as her unending support, attention, and kindness. R. Stephen Humphreys has also been an unending source of inspiration to me, and I appreciate the time and energy he has devoted to advancing both my knowledge and my career. Richard D. Hecht has proven invaluable to me as well, giving me advice and instruction that has been priceless in helping my scholarship and professional development. These four professors have been generous, inspirational, and patient, and I will feel forever indebted to them for what they have taught me, and for all of the support they have given me over the years. The revisions to this work took place primarily over the five years that I was fortunate enough to be an assistant professor in the History Department at the University of Central Florida, and I would like to thank my colleagues and friends in Orlando for their professional encouragement and personal friendship. In particular, I would like to thank my chair at UCF, Edmund Kallina, as well as Richard Crepeau, for providing me with the best resources in their power for my professional success and development. The final stages of this book were completed as I began my new position at the University of North Texas, and I would like to thank my new colleagues in Denton for their warm welcome to academic life in the Lone Star State. I warmly thank the staff of the University Press of Florida for all of their hard work bringing this book to fruition. In particular, I would like to thank my editor, Amy Gorelick, for her unfailing patience and encouragement from the very beginning of the process to the very end. Many colleagues and friends have provided crucial professional and personal support during many years of work, and I would like to thank all of them for their tireless generosity. In particular, I would like to thank (in alphabetical order) Hibba Abugideiri, Rodney Alvarez, Paul Arthur, Laura Bier, Angelica DeAngelis, Greg Dening, Maeve Devoy, Howard Eissenstat, Ellen Fleischmann, Craig Friend, Elizabeth Frierson, Alexandra Garbarini, Jeff Harris, Rachel Howes, Heather Keaney, Michael Marten, Nabil Matar, Heleen Murre-van den Berg, Holly Neubuerger, Darcy Ritzau, Michael Thompson, Charlotte van der Leest, and Carole Woodall, all of whom have given me invaluable advice on this work and/or invaluable friendship during its creation. Most important to me are two people who have given me unconditional love, support, and friendship, and without their presence in my life, I am certain this work would never have been completed. Carter McBeath, I thank you for your love, intellect, and companionship, and look forward to many more years of life by your side. And to my mother, Nancy Sue Stockdale, your unfailing love and support have sustained me since day one, and I dedicate this book to you as a small token of gratitude for making it all possible.

The setting of Palestine as the "Land of the Bible" made it a geographical space that English people felt they already knew. Using the "knowledge" they brought with them, coupled with the knowledge they collected, they asserted English superiority over Palestinians and their society. Nancy Stockdale shows us that fundamental to this process were English women, who played an active role in the imperial attempt to disseminate English culture and authority in this contested space. British women travelers and missionaries worked to significantly alter Palestinian women's lives, while painting a portrait of Palestine as a backward, ignorant place in need of English moral and political leadership. The Palestinian women who embraced British culture found themselves trapped between their indigenous culture and the culture of the imperial power, never fully accepted into either. This resulted in feelings of disappointment and betrayal, and contributed to the ultimate failure of the English imperial project in Palestine. By illuminating the manner in which Palestinian women viewed English women--often as exotic as their own image in the minds of the English--Stockdale demonstrates the reflexive nature of the colonial encounter, deflecting and reorienting the imperial gaze.