Steiner's work was widely praised, and her books received great reviews for their in-depth coverage of events.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFBooks(photo credit: HANAN COHEN)
Famed historian Zara Steiner died last month at the age of 91 in her home in Cambridge, UK, multiple reports confirmed.Her death on February 13 came 10 days after the death of her husband, the essayist and academic George Steiner.According to her son, David, she died of pneumonia, The New York Times reported.Born Zara Alice Shakow in 1928 to a Jewish family in New York, Steiner became famous for her in-depth research on the background of the First World War as well as the period between the two world wars, and she was especially notable for two reasons: Being an American scholar whose research was largely centered on the UK and being a woman in a field dominated by men.Her research went into depth by analyzing primary sources in the form of papers and letters of civil servants and through interviews of both prominent and not-as-prominent individuals involved in the story, in an effort to paint a more complete picture of the complex series of events. This departure from traditional scholarship, which had mainly relied on communications between the British foreign secretary and officials abroad. Rather, this method put more focus on public opinion and overlooked staff members, and was made possible due to the vast and untouched collection of documents in libraries, archives and private collections.As she wrote in a biographical essay published in 2017, the reactions of some people who she tried to interview were sometimes surprising. One retired diplomat, Owen O'Malley, said to her “An American, a woman and a Jew writing about the Foreign Office. It should not be allowed,” though they soon became friends.Steiner's work was widely praised, and her books received great reviews for their in-depth coverage of events.She is survived by David, her daughter Deborah and two granddaughters, according to The Guardian.
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