J. Bowyer Bell
Encyclopedia
J. Bowyer Bell was an American
historian
, artist
and art critic
.
. The family later moved to Alabama
, from where Bell attended Washington and Lee University
in Lexington
, Virginia
, majoring in history. He also studied art, and discovered he had "total visual memory"–the equivalent of perfect pitch in a singer. His first solo art showing was in the college library in his senior year. He considered becoming a professional artist and made frequent visits to New York to visit other artists, including his hero Franz Kline
, but committed to academia. Bell graduated in 1953, and began studying the Spanish Civil War
at Duke University
in North Carolina
. Bell interrupted his studies at Duke after being awarded a Fulbright, and travelled to Italy
to study at the University of Rome. Bell travelled Europe interviewing veterans of the Spanish Civil War, and in Rome he mixed with writers and artists including Cy Twombly
. After returning to America, Bell completed his doctorate
at Duke in 1958.
, Harvard University
and Trinity School
in Manhattan
. In 1962 he married Charlotte Rockey, an Egyptologist, and they moved into an apartment in Manhattan. In New York, Bell socialised with the likes of Robert Rauschenberg
, Jasper Johns
, Jack Kerouac
and Frank Stella
at the Cedar Tavern
. Bell exhibited his paintings and collages at the Allan Stone Gallery, and collected paintings and sculptures by artists including John Chamberlain. Bell was fascinated by global terrorism
conflicts and decided to "write [his] way back into academia". While researching the Middle East
, he discovered that the Irgun
drew inspiration from the Irish Republican Army
(IRA) and the Irish War of Independence
, and began to study the IRA. Bell and his family travelled to County Carlow
in the Republic of Ireland
in 1965, where he spent several months researching the Republican Movement
. He discovered little had been published on Irish history after 1922, and the state archives were closed until the 1980s. He began research in the National Library of Ireland
, and also interviewed Irish republicans in a Kilkenny
public house
and hotels in Dublin.
In 1966 his first book was published; Besieged: Seven Cities Under Siege covered the Irgun's guerrilla campaign
in the British Mandate of Palestine. The same year he returned to Dublin with his family to continue his research, and in 1967 he made his first visit to Northern Ireland
where he attended a meeting of the banned Republican Clubs. In 1969 he published his second book on the Middle East; The Long War: Israel and the Arabs since 1946. The Troubles
began in Northern Ireland in 1969, and Bell's The Secret Army: the IRA 1916-1970 was published the following year, and was one of the first detailed histories of the IRA along with The IRA by Tim Pat Coogan
which was also published in 1970. After the publication of The Secret Army Bell lived mostly in New York and London
, England
, and continued to visit Ireland regularly each year. While researching in Ireland Bell was tear gassed and shot at during riots in Belfast, which he described as "field work a bit too near the centre of the field". Bell continued to travel extensively, researching in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia as part of a career described as "talking to terrorists, gunmen, mad dogs and mercenaries". He was held hostage in Jordan
, shot at in Lebanon
, kidnapped in Yemen
and deported from Kenya
. Horn of Africa: Strategic Magnet in the Seventies was published in 1973, and in 1974 he began writing with the "Insight Team" of The Sunday Times
about the war in Cyprus
. This was followed by the 1976 publication of On Revolt: Strategies of National Liberation, for which he interviewed over a hundred participants from revolts against the British Empire
. Following the death of his first wife in 1981 Bell married an Irishwoman, Norah Browne from County Kerry
, who he had met while filming his 1972 documentary The Secret Army.
Bell also continued to work in other areas; he was an adjunct professor at Columbia University
's School of International and Public Affairs
, and he also held the position of research associate
at the university's Institute of War and Peace Studies. He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
and founded a consultancy, the International Analysis Centre, whose clients included the United States Department of State
, the United States Department of Justice
, the Central Intelligence Agency
and American television networks. He continued to work as an independent scholar, carrying out research with the aid of grants; he received over seven Guggenheim Fellowships and turned down a Rockefeller Humanities Award
. Bell also continued his career in painting, receiving a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship
and exhibiting work inspired by the conflicts he witnessed. From 1979 onwards his paintings were exhibited annually at the Taylor Gallery in Dublin, and he also held exhibitions in Manhattan and Hungary
. Bell also launched a career as an art critic in the 1990s, writing for New York based journal Review, and he was also commissioned to write catalogue entries for galleries and museum retrospectives.
Bell continued writing about the IRA and the ongoing events of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and in 1994 he was a speaker at West Belfast Festival, where he suggested the IRA was the only organisation in Northern Ireland that understood its problems. In 1996 he made headlines in Ireland and abroad after meeting with the Army Council of the Continuity IRA at a secret rural location in Ireland. He was accused by former IRA member Anthony McIntyre of having an Irish republican bias, with McIntyre stating "Bowyer Bell's long familiarity with Irish Republicanism once prompted the caustic comment that there are none more vindictive than a reformed gunman". As well as releasing updated versions of The Secret Army, Bell continued to write about other aspects of the conflict in Ireland and also the Middle East. Terror Out of Zion: Irgun Zvai Leumi, Lehi and the Palestine Underground 1929-49 was published in 1977, Cheating and Deception in 1991, The Irish Troubles: A Generation of Violence 1967-1992 in 1993, In Dubious Battle: The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 1972-1974 and Back to the Future: The Protestants and a United Ireland in 1996, and Dynamics of the Armed Struggle in 1998. With the aid of a grant from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bell returned to the Middle East in 2000 to conduct research for his next book, on Egypt
ian Islamic terrorism. As with The Secret Army first being published shortly after the start of the Troubles, Bell's timing was again good with Murders on the Nile: The World Trade Center and Global Terrorism being published in 2002, shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks
on the United States by Al-Qaeda
.
in a New York hospital on 23 August 2003. He was survived by his second wife, and four children from his first marriage. His paintings continue to be exhibited since his death.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
.
Background and early life
Bell was born into an Episcopalian family on 15 November 1931 in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The family later moved to Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, from where Bell attended Washington and Lee University
Washington and Lee University
Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States.The classical school from which Washington and Lee descended was established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, about north of its present location. In 1776 it was renamed Liberty Hall in a burst of...
in Lexington
Lexington, Virginia
Lexington is an independent city within the confines of Rockbridge County in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 7,042 in 2010. Lexington is about 55 minutes east of the West Virginia border and is about 50 miles north of Roanoke, Virginia. It was first settled in 1777.It is home to...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, majoring in history. He also studied art, and discovered he had "total visual memory"–the equivalent of perfect pitch in a singer. His first solo art showing was in the college library in his senior year. He considered becoming a professional artist and made frequent visits to New York to visit other artists, including his hero Franz Kline
Franz Kline
Franz Jozef Kline was an American painter mainly associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement centered around New York in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and attended Girard College, an academy in Philadelphia for fatherless boys...
, but committed to academia. Bell graduated in 1953, and began studying the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. Bell interrupted his studies at Duke after being awarded a Fulbright, and travelled to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
to study at the University of Rome. Bell travelled Europe interviewing veterans of the Spanish Civil War, and in Rome he mixed with writers and artists including Cy Twombly
Cy Twombly
Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly, Jr. was an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors...
. After returning to America, Bell completed his doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
at Duke in 1958.
Professional career
After graduating, Bell began teaching at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and Trinity School
Trinity School (New York City)
Trinity School is a private, preparatory, co-educational day school for grades K-12 located in New York City, USA, and a member of both the New York Interschool and the Ivy Preparatory School League...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. In 1962 he married Charlotte Rockey, an Egyptologist, and they moved into an apartment in Manhattan. In New York, Bell socialised with the likes of Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
, Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns, Jr. is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.-Life:Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed...
, Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
and Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
at the Cedar Tavern
Cedar Tavern
The Cedar Tavern was a bar and restaurant in New York City last at 82 University Place between 11th and 12th Streets. It was famous as a former hangout of many prominent Abstract Expressionist painters and beat writers...
. Bell exhibited his paintings and collages at the Allan Stone Gallery, and collected paintings and sculptures by artists including John Chamberlain. Bell was fascinated by global terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
conflicts and decided to "write [his] way back into academia". While researching the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, he discovered that the Irgun
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
drew inspiration from the Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
(IRA) and the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
, and began to study the IRA. Bell and his family travelled to County Carlow
County Carlow
County Carlow is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Carlow, which lies on the River Barrow. Carlow County Council is the local authority for the county...
in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
in 1965, where he spent several months researching the Republican Movement
Republican Movement (Ireland)
The Republican Movement is a collective term used to describe the Irish Republican Army and other political, social and paramilitary organisations associated with it.The term is not restricted to any one movement and can include:...
. He discovered little had been published on Irish history after 1922, and the state archives were closed until the 1980s. He began research in the National Library of Ireland
National Library of Ireland
The National Library of Ireland is Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The Minister for Arts, Sport & Tourism is the member of the Irish Government responsible for the library....
, and also interviewed Irish republicans in a Kilkenny
Kilkenny
Kilkenny is a city and is the county town of the eponymous County Kilkenny in Ireland. It is situated on both banks of the River Nore in the province of Leinster, in the south-east of Ireland...
public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
and hotels in Dublin.
In 1966 his first book was published; Besieged: Seven Cities Under Siege covered the Irgun's guerrilla campaign
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
in the British Mandate of Palestine. The same year he returned to Dublin with his family to continue his research, and in 1967 he made his first visit to Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
where he attended a meeting of the banned Republican Clubs. In 1969 he published his second book on the Middle East; The Long War: Israel and the Arabs since 1946. The Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
began in Northern Ireland in 1969, and Bell's The Secret Army: the IRA 1916-1970 was published the following year, and was one of the first detailed histories of the IRA along with The IRA by Tim Pat Coogan
Tim Pat Coogan
Timothy Patrick Coogan is an Irish historical writer, broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He served as editor of the Irish Press newspaper from 1968 to 1987...
which was also published in 1970. After the publication of The Secret Army Bell lived mostly in New York and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and continued to visit Ireland regularly each year. While researching in Ireland Bell was tear gassed and shot at during riots in Belfast, which he described as "field work a bit too near the centre of the field". Bell continued to travel extensively, researching in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia as part of a career described as "talking to terrorists, gunmen, mad dogs and mercenaries". He was held hostage in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, shot at in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, kidnapped in Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
and deported from Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. Horn of Africa: Strategic Magnet in the Seventies was published in 1973, and in 1974 he began writing with the "Insight Team" of The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
about the war in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
. This was followed by the 1976 publication of On Revolt: Strategies of National Liberation, for which he interviewed over a hundred participants from revolts against the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. Following the death of his first wife in 1981 Bell married an Irishwoman, Norah Browne from County Kerry
County Kerry
Kerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...
, who he had met while filming his 1972 documentary The Secret Army.
Bell also continued to work in other areas; he was an adjunct professor at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's School of International and Public Affairs
School of International and Public Affairs
The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University is one of the most prestigious graduate schools of public policy in the world. Located on Columbia's Morningside Heights campus in the Borough of Manhattan, in New York City, the School has 15,000 graduates in more than 150...
, and he also held the position of research associate
Research associate
The title of research associate is used to denote an academic research position at a university or similar institution. A research associate usually conducts research under the supervision of a principal investigator. In contrast to a research assistant or research officer, a research associate...
at the university's Institute of War and Peace Studies. He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
and founded a consultancy, the International Analysis Centre, whose clients included the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
, the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and American television networks. He continued to work as an independent scholar, carrying out research with the aid of grants; he received over seven Guggenheim Fellowships and turned down a Rockefeller Humanities Award
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
. Bell also continued his career in painting, receiving a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship
Pollock-Krasner Foundation
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing financial assistance to individual working artists of established ability. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expressionist painter and the widow of fellow painter Jackson...
and exhibiting work inspired by the conflicts he witnessed. From 1979 onwards his paintings were exhibited annually at the Taylor Gallery in Dublin, and he also held exhibitions in Manhattan and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. Bell also launched a career as an art critic in the 1990s, writing for New York based journal Review, and he was also commissioned to write catalogue entries for galleries and museum retrospectives.
Bell continued writing about the IRA and the ongoing events of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and in 1994 he was a speaker at West Belfast Festival, where he suggested the IRA was the only organisation in Northern Ireland that understood its problems. In 1996 he made headlines in Ireland and abroad after meeting with the Army Council of the Continuity IRA at a secret rural location in Ireland. He was accused by former IRA member Anthony McIntyre of having an Irish republican bias, with McIntyre stating "Bowyer Bell's long familiarity with Irish Republicanism once prompted the caustic comment that there are none more vindictive than a reformed gunman". As well as releasing updated versions of The Secret Army, Bell continued to write about other aspects of the conflict in Ireland and also the Middle East. Terror Out of Zion: Irgun Zvai Leumi, Lehi and the Palestine Underground 1929-49 was published in 1977, Cheating and Deception in 1991, The Irish Troubles: A Generation of Violence 1967-1992 in 1993, In Dubious Battle: The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 1972-1974 and Back to the Future: The Protestants and a United Ireland in 1996, and Dynamics of the Armed Struggle in 1998. With the aid of a grant from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bell returned to the Middle East in 2000 to conduct research for his next book, on Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian Islamic terrorism. As with The Secret Army first being published shortly after the start of the Troubles, Bell's timing was again good with Murders on the Nile: The World Trade Center and Global Terrorism being published in 2002, shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
on the United States by Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
.
Death
Bell died from renal failureRenal failure
Renal failure or kidney failure describes a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood...
in a New York hospital on 23 August 2003. He was survived by his second wife, and four children from his first marriage. His paintings continue to be exhibited since his death.