The Woman Who Fought an Empire

This book suggests that the usual description of female spies fall somewhere between the archetypical Marta Hari and Joan of Arc but then goes on to illustrate how far from the truth this is when referring to Sarah Aaronsohn. She was the daughter of Romanian-born Jewish settlers in Palestine who was caught and tortured by the Turks in 1917 at the age of 27.

Sarah’s brother, Aaron, was a well-known agronomist and this helped him to travel and meet with influential people. After the outbreak of World War I he formed Nili, a spy network to act against the Ottoman Empire in favour of the British war effort. Sarah was one of a group of people who aided Aaron initially in his research station and later in his Middle East spy ring. Whilst Aaron devoted his time to convince the British that he was sincere, Sarah not only ran the research station but also worked to increase her network of spies. Sarah’s motivation was not only to aid her brother but her conviction to act against the Turks was due to her personally witnessing the atrocities of the Armenian genocide by the Turks. She believed that a similar fate would meet the Jews at the hands of the Turks. As the leader of the organisation which provided vital information relating to Turkish military forces to the British in Cairo, Sarah recruited and ran spies, distributed funds and liaised with her counterparts, and dealt with security.

Sarah aware that the end was coming determined to be the last person to abandon Nili. She was caught and tortured by the Turks in 1917 along with others, including her father. By shooting herself she defeated the Turks’ wish to put her on trial and execute her.

Mr Wallance’s research is astounding. It details Sarah’s earlier life with examples of letters and recollections of her family and friends which I sometimes a bit laborious. Set against that background the descriptions of Sarah’s captivity and torture are horrifying. On reflection, the whole tone of the book is scholarly, not sensationalist at all, and all to its credit. A remarkable woman. A remarkable book.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Wallance provides a riveting and well researched account of the role played by Sarah Aaronsohn and her Nili spy ring in the British victory over the Ottoman Empire. Besides learning about a courageous young Palestinian Jew's struggle on behalf of her people, readers will gain insights into some of the key historical personalities and sociopolitical forces which helped shape the modern Middle East.

When women today are looking for a strong role model for feminism, independence, bravery, and everything in between they should stop looking to celebrities and read this book and more about women like this. I had never heard of Sarah nor the Nili spy ring so this was an eye opener for me. Well researched, well written. Reads almost like a novel, loved reading about Lawrence of Arabia in there too. What an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Sarah was brave and beautiful (because you can be beautiful and a feminist all at the same time) and there is no way I could have done what she did. Her first hand accounts of the Armenian genocide took my breath away.

Read this book!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for letting me have a free copy of this amazing

A moving, thought-provoking account of Sarah Aaronsohn, the woman who led the spy ring in Palestine during WW1. She is scarcely known despite the fact that the information provided by her spies was hugely effective in helping the British Army and its Allies in the War, particularly against the Turks, Yet 'Mata Hari', who actually achieved very little in comparison, is by far the better known. I somehow suspect that Sarah's Jewish background has quite a bit to do with how easily she's been erased from the history of WW1.

Most of us have heard of Mata Hari the famous Dutch exotic dancer and mistress at the outbreak of WWI. who began to spy for the French and was later accused of being a double agent and was executed. Well, here we have another category of spy, Sarah Aaronsohn. Mostly unheard of, but so much braver and it is so much more of a real heroine story. When the trouble started she had already seen the genocide of the Armenians by the Turks on her way back to Palestine. Then she learned that her brother was building a system of spies to help the British and she insisted on joining. She eventually ended up running the whole spy organization after first her brother in law, and then her brother had to leave to convince the military heads in Britain that the whole thing was legitimate. It was a harrowing story and very much a worthwhile read if you enjoy history and non-fiction of this time period. It is quite a story of all that goes on between the different countries and people during the war.

An advance digital copy was provided by NetGalley, author Gregory J. Wallance, and the University of Nebraska Press for my review.

Dear book friends, "The Woman Who Fought an Empire " has an excellent premise. World War I, Palestine, a Jewish spy ring, a woman emerging from the ashes of history, and the dominating presecence of both the Ottoman and British Empires. Basically a lover of history has everything they could ask for and it was definitely what I had anticipated when selecting this book. Most often when authors in both fiction and non fiction talk about this area of the world it is in the shadow of the Holocaust and the fight for a Jewish homeland. But this story which talks about Sarah Aaronsohn, her siblings, and friends and their spy ring is new and fresh.

Author Gregory J Wallance has researched this book to the hilt, including plenty of personal letters written by Sarah and other members of the Nili spy ring which have survived. Wallance also makes sure that his readers have a thorough understanding of the time period, the political situations, the important players, the devastation of the Armenian genocide, and the horrors of the first world war. All very important and relevant information for readers.

Here comes my BUT ! So much information weighed this book down. It took me 3 days to read the first two chapters. There were glimpses of Sarah- strong of character, dedicated to the cause, a beloved sister etc. We are told from the beginning that Sarah dies at age 27 and certainly the last part of her life is described in such vivid detail and her death was indeed horrific and tragic. However, I really felt that as far as Sarah being the centre of focus, the men that surrounded her(brothers and lovers) in Nili, eclipsed her and were so much more fascinating to me.

So it was heavily researched, it did introduce me to a woman that I had never heard about, it touched upon some important parts of history, but feel myself only giving it a 3 star because I wasn't completely bowled over by this account.

The Woman Who Fought an Empire chronicles the life of Sarah Aaronsohn, a Jew in Palestine during the First World War, who along with her brothers organized and ran the Nili spy ring; they spied on the Ottomans for the British. WWI is a period of time I'm mostly unfamiliar with, so I was intrigued by the idea of a female spy. I've been looking to expand my knowledge of historical events, especially those not involving the US, so I eagerly picked this book up, so to speak.

Author Gregory J. Wallance has done a phenomenal amount of research to bring Sarah back to life, including personal letters and recollections of family and friends. There was actually an overwhelming amount of information - so many names to keep track of. There is a list of the important persons at the beginning of the book, but it was not easy to refer to on my Kindle (at least in the advance copy). Also a formatting error hopefully only present in the ARC was the insertions of letters. There often wasn't a distinction between Wallance's observations and the letters themselves, so it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began. And as Wallance so often interjected in the middle of a letter, it was a little frustrating.

For the most part, The Woman Who Fought an Empire is informative and interesting. At times it reads almost like a spy novel.

A fascinating and little known story about a truly impressive young woman, who, along with her brother and several friends ran a spy ring for the British in the middle east, during the first world war. Shocked and appalled by the atrocities she witnessed which were carried out by the Turks, Sarah Aaronsohn and her brother stood up to several members of their Jewish community in Palestine and risked torture and death to provide information to the British. The book is meticulously researched and annotated and the story it tells is a fascinating one, but I do wish we were able to learn a little more about the personality of Sarah, as from what we do learn she iswas clearly an extremely tough , brave and smart woman, though not with out weaknesses. I found the book informative and learned about an aspect of history I knew little or nothing about.

A really wonderful and fascinating read. Will be recommending this to others!

Sarah Aarohnson was a remarkable woman who led a remarkable life, a life which was sadly cut short when she was only 27. She was the daughter of Romanian Jewish settlers in Palestine, and followed her brothers into activism. I’d never heard of her before, or of the spy ring, Nili, that she headed. Following the outbreak of WWI, Sarah discovered that her brother Aaron had formed Nili, an anti-Turkish organisation whose aim was to help the allies in their fight against the Ottoman Empire. Operating behind enemy lines, the group supplied intelligence to the British. Sarah rose to become the organisation’s leader until she was caught, tortured and shot herself to protect the group. It’s a great story, and this is a thoroughly researched and well-written biography, although admittedly a rather dry one. All the facts are there but there’s little emotion and I never felt we got to know Sarah in any depth. I found the book interesting and informative, however, and I learnt much about this tumultuous time in Palestine’s history.

Bold and brilliant, Sarah Aaronsohn and her siblings oversaw an incredible spy ring, collecting information for the UK from deep within the Ottoman Empire. Wallance crafts a vivid and exciting story of their exploits, becoming more and more harrowing as the Ottomans begin closing in.

While I think the title of the book was a little misleading in me thinking the book would be focused more on Sarah Aaronsohn, over all this was an excellent book. The author did a wonderful job of telling the story of the Nili spy ring and Sarah's part in it. It would have been nice to learn more about Sarah herself and not just her actions with the spy ring and her reasons for joining it. The book was well researched and annotated. The information that was in the book was enormous. The author did a wonderful job of telling the story of all the major players in the Nili Spy ring and it's British counterparts. This is a truly a book for anyone interested in World War I, the formation of the Jewish State to read. The author did a wonderful job of bringing forward a story that needed telling and will not be forgotten.

The Woman Who Fought an Empire: Sarah Aaronsohn and Her Nili Spy Ring by Gregory Wallace. Potomac Books
You've probably never heard of Sarah Aaronsohn, because stories like hers tend to get lost in history. I would tell you to Google her name, but the story is far too compelling to learn about from a source relied on by lazy middle school kids. Get the book instead.

While you're waiting for it to arrive, I'll give you the highlights - Sarah was born in what is today Israel, in a town called Zichron Yaakov, during the Ottoman Empire. On a trip from Istanbul back to what was then called Palestine, she witnessed the results of the Armenian genocide which was also the handiwork of the Ottomans. This made her really dislike the Ottomans, and believe that the Jews would fare better under the British. With the help of her siblings and a few friends, Sarah formed a spy ring, called Nili, to pass secrets to the British during WWI and help them defeat the Ottomans. She eventually became the leader of the spy ring, which was the largest of its kind in the middle east. The book was researched and written by New York lawyer Gregory Wallace, who pundits often on cable news.

I know it's summer, but a little serious non-fiction is good for the brain. Check it out.

This book is fine. I'm sure you know what you're getting into when you pick this up...

It's a little tedious, but still a good nonfiction source.

What we know about both military and espionage events in the Middle East during WWI I strongly suspect comes mainly from the stories of the exploits of Lawrence of Arabia and what became known as the Great Arab Revolt. This chapter in the history of Palestine I think has been largely overlooked in general, though no doubt is more familiar to purists - and I include myself in the former, which was why I was drawn to this book in the first place.

Meticulously researched, Wallance brings to life the events of the time, the lives of Sarah and her family, the exploits of the Nili spies, and, of course, of Sarah herself. In doing so, Wallance reveals to us the reader, the real human element. Sarah saw horrible things being done but instead of quietly looking the other way and keeping her head down, she stepped forward and made a difference.

This was such an interesting piece of non-fiction, breaking down stereotypes about females spies left and right. Wallance did an incredible amount of research and this book is so incredibly detailed.

This book was a really interesting look into a woman I didn't know much about. Sarah Aaronsohn was a very important woman during World War 1 as leader of a Jewish spy ring, from starting up, to her tragic death.

However, although this book is about Sarah, there is a big focus on the male members of the spy ring and the effect they have on Sarah's life.

It was interesting to find out about her, she was definite important and its a shame there isn't more out there about her.

I'm glad I got this book from Netgalley as I learnt something new. I just wish there had been more on Sarah (although the author was using her letters for research).

It's quite a quick read, and has lots of well researched information. If you're a fan of women's history of WW1, then pick it up!
3/5 stars.