Writing their Own Way: American Women, Palestine’s Bedouins and Issues of Safety in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Throughout the nineteenth century, more and more Americans traveled abroad, especially after the American Civil War (1861-1865). Many, upon their return home, published their travel accounts. I have collected and analysed the published accounts of fifty American women. What follows is an investigation into how American women travelers who ventured to Palestine perceived and interacted with Palestine’s Bedouin populations by examining their published travel accounts.