The Victorians and the Holy Land: Adventurers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in the Lands of the Bible

The Victorian era saw the “Holy Land” transform in the Western imagination from a hazy backdrop for biblical events into a “place existing in space and time,” according to this colorful history. Oxford University history professor Chapman (Slaying the Dragons) details how a slew of technological innovations, including the electric telegraph, and the increasing affordability of steamship travel fueled an influx of visitors to Palestine and the Middle East in the 19th century. Among them were Christian pilgrims reigniting their faith, enterprising dealers capitalizing on a burgeoning antiques market, and archaeologists and biblical scholars seeking to confirm scriptural stories. Spotlighted here are archaeologist Flinders Petrie, whose digs helped prove the existence of biblical locales (including the city of Nineveh, located in modern-day Iraq), and Thomas Cook, “the world’s first mass tourism promoter,” who planned trips to the Middle East for an adventurous and newly mobile middle class. Meanwhile, artists like William Holman Hunt painted Palestine with a photorealistic accuracy that—along with the popularization of color photography—brought the vistas of the Holy Land to armchair travelers. In chatty prose, Chapman brings to life a vibrant period of cross-cultural ferment that confirmed and sometimes challenged Westerners’ views on Christianity. It’s a revealing window into a vital period of change and discovery in the modern Middle East. (Feb.)