American Travelers on the Nile

"The highly readable book is a major contribution to the history of Egyptology and to the study of East-West encounter." --Jason Thompson, author of A History of Egypt from Earliest Times to the Present "Andrew Oliver has rescued an earlier, happier American encounter with the Middle East - when American came to admire, to explore and to record. In many cases these American accounts, mostly unpublished, are less arrogant and more original than those by contemporary Europeans. Indispensable for anyone interested in the history of travel, and of the Middle East in the age of Mohammed Ali Pasha." --Philip Mansel, author of Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean. "This book on the little-known history of the American presence in Egypt, which was to have a continuing influence on American art and taste, fills a much-needed gap in both the modern history of Egypt and America" --Morris Bierbrier, Department of Egyptian Antiquities, British Museum. "For those interested in the study of travellers and travel in Egypt, this book is a welcome new source of information about many forgotten journeys and will be valuable for descriptions of Egypt and its monuments" --Neil Cooke, Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East; "a thorough compendium of travellers' tales, accompanied by appropriate and meticulously researched illustrations... this book is a significant contribution to the history of travellers from the United States to the lands of the Ottoman Empire ...The book could almost be a work of reference it is so packed with encyclopaedic detail ... a fascinating picture of two nations first emerging onto the world stage from the shadow of two great empires." Sheila McGuirk, ASTENE Bulletin 64;