Zara Steiner, distinguished scholar of diplomatic history, dies at 91

Zara Steiner, a historian whose magisterial books on 20th-century diplomacy were considered authoritative studies of Europe from World War I to World War II, died Feb. 13 at her home in Cambridge, England. She was 91.

The cause was pneumonia, said her son, David Steiner.

Dr. Steiner was a U.S.-born scholar who spent most of her career in England, including a long association with the University of Cambridge. She was part of an intellectual power couple with her husband, the literary critic and author George Steiner, who died Feb. 3.

Early in her academic life, Dr. Steiner published studies on the U.S. Foreign Service, but after she and her husband settled in Cambridge in the early 1960s, she focused her scholarly attention on Europe. She became a leading figure at New Hall (now called Murray Edwards College), a women’s college within the University of Cambridge.