amid's review
5.0
Last book of 2022
A History of the Modern Middle East examines the profound and often dramatic transformations of the region in the past two centuries, from the Ottoman and Egyptian reforms, through the challenge of Western imperialism, to the impact of US foreign policies.
الكتاب الأخير لعام 2022
يتناول كتاب تاريخ الشرق الأوسط الحديث التحولات العميقة والدرامية في المنطقة في القرنين الماضيين ، من الإصلاحات العثمانية والمصرية ، إلى تحدي الإمبريالية الغربية ، وصولا لتأثير السياسة الخارجية الأمريكية على المنطقة
A History of the Modern Middle East examines the profound and often dramatic transformations of the region in the past two centuries, from the Ottoman and Egyptian reforms, through the challenge of Western imperialism, to the impact of US foreign policies.
الكتاب الأخير لعام 2022
يتناول كتاب تاريخ الشرق الأوسط الحديث التحولات العميقة والدرامية في المنطقة في القرنين الماضيين ، من الإصلاحات العثمانية والمصرية ، إلى تحدي الإمبريالية الغربية ، وصولا لتأثير السياسة الخارجية الأمريكية على المنطقة
dashadashahi's review
5.0
This book provides an excellent starting point to the history of the modern Middle East. It is simple to read and follow
xan's review
5.0
If you’re at all interested in the historical events of the Middle East (I suppose you are if you’re reading this review) to gain an inkling of understanding for this region, this is a great book.
meririvilla's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Como un overview empezando casi de zero me parecio un libro fabuloso, aprendi muchisimo que ya se me va olvidando desde como comenzo islam y como los paises que existen ahora han sido shaped por los poderes europeos ya desde la era de los ottoman, wue la verdad hicieron tanto para establecer orden y unir a gente en sus respectovas provincias. Y que a lo largo iba el libro menos y mnoe sme extraña las opiniones de la gente alla hacia los poderes europeos, porque desde como hicieron las fonteras ya crearon tanton problemas como en Iraq que dicieron quitarles casi todo el aceso al mar para restringir su poder y finalmente llevo hasta el gulf war y la invasion. Tambien por ejemplo palestina y como fue la influecia de un hombre en el reino unido que causo la creacion de israel y el support de Britain y mas tarde us dandose de ciegos jacia el maltrato de los Palestinians a quien quitan las tierras y echan de sus propias casas. Tambien el principio de egipto y nasser eso era mu cool despues del ottoman empire que iba desde algeria hasta grecia y siria y los poderes de hace antiguedades de en lo que hoy es iran y la infinitud de problemas y la influencia del islam creciendo ultimamente porque los partidos de izquierdas se prohibieron en tantos paises alla que el unico origen de protesta hacia los regimens viene de la iglesia, con la excepcion de iran donde el secularisation es la mayor resouesta. Tambien como la cantidad de oil wealth afecto a naciones y fue la fundacion de tantos paises como kuwait. Y como lospoderes europeos mas que nada les importa el petroleo ycom enseñan la hipocrasia haciendose amig3te con saudi por ejemplo y luego tanto para quitar al de iraq sin planear el despues y dejar tantas vidas empeoradaso perdidas. Tambien el origen de tantos regimens autocraticos vienen de las revoluciones o la manera en la que los colonizadores dejaron sus paises sin un pñan democratico que de verdad representara a la poblacion. Y muchos de estas organizaciones puestas como terroritas xomo hamas o hezbollah que salieron de la resistencia a la opresion de grupos particulares. Vamos que me gusto mucho aprender la respuesta a tantas dudas e ignorancias que tenia de la region. Y ta,bien me gusto especialmente el ver las sociedades mas antiguas en el ottoman en turquia y como diferentes leis y rulers y decisiones de ellos afectzdon tan greatly a tanta gente
retric's review
5.0
A great read for anyone wanting a relatively comprehensive overview of the region, if not lacking a little in the descriptive details. Note that this is a history textbook and so will come across as a bit drier compared to other nonfiction books, but for an introductory classical historical treatment of the Middle East from early Islam to the present day (up to the 2011 Arab Spring in the most recent edition), I'm guessing it won't get much better than this. That said, I hear Gelvin is recommended if you're looking for something more concise and to the point on how to actually approach this subject on the other hand.
The perspective of the narrative here is primarily told from the viewpoints of the governments of the Middle Eastern nations themselves over the Western ones, although there's naturally plenty of coverage of the latter anyway. Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinians take the spotlight with occasional digressions to the north African nations and the Gulf States. Emphasis on the modern in that maybe 80% of the book is concerned with developments of the 20th/early 21st century, with the centuries before that point mostly summarized to provide context for everything else.
Given the vast scope of material to be covered in several hundred pages, a lot of events are mentioned in passing only to point out how they fit into the bigger picture, so I found myself wiki-ing a lot of incidents out of curiosity anyway when the details were scarce. As far as the big picture goes, Cleveland (and Bunton who took this up after Cleveland died in 2006) does a good job of pointing out trends and analyzing causes and effects from as wide and as neutral a perspective you can probably get, even regarding the most recent events. The Western perspective is also addressed (there's a whole chapter on America's role in establishing hegemony in the region post-Cold War era), but only insofar as to convey the significant impact that Western views have had on the region, given their frequent tendency to ignore the historical and present context when dealing with it.
Reading this made me appreciate the fact that a lot of the issues that plague the Middle East to this day are fundamentally ingrained in its geopolitical history: from the arbitrary forced formation of nation-states post World War I, to the frequent outsider intervention of Britain, France, the Soviets, and the US, to the unique natural (oil-rich) and political environment of the nation-states themselves, allowing authoritarian governments to prosper and persist at the expense of their people, while hindering the development of any viable movements that might actually be able to replace them and last. Islam is only one part of a bigger picture, and to focus primarily on the religious aspect of things, for good or bad, is to ignore the fact that there are other primary and often material causes involved that would encourage the people of the Middle East to turn to Islamist movements in the first place; many of these causes are problems that have no easy or simple solutions to begin with. It's difficult to expect any government to be able to satisfy the demands of a population that is ideologically at odds with itself or impose reforms via a political system fundamentally designed to discourage such developments.
Oddly enough, as the book points out, there's even an example of a secular state turning more religious (Turkey) and a religious state turning more secular (Iran) within the same timespan, both because of the population growing dissatisfied with the way their regimes were dealing with their issues... and in other words, life is complicated.
The perspective of the narrative here is primarily told from the viewpoints of the governments of the Middle Eastern nations themselves over the Western ones, although there's naturally plenty of coverage of the latter anyway. Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinians take the spotlight with occasional digressions to the north African nations and the Gulf States. Emphasis on the modern in that maybe 80% of the book is concerned with developments of the 20th/early 21st century, with the centuries before that point mostly summarized to provide context for everything else.
Given the vast scope of material to be covered in several hundred pages, a lot of events are mentioned in passing only to point out how they fit into the bigger picture, so I found myself wiki-ing a lot of incidents out of curiosity anyway when the details were scarce. As far as the big picture goes, Cleveland (and Bunton who took this up after Cleveland died in 2006) does a good job of pointing out trends and analyzing causes and effects from as wide and as neutral a perspective you can probably get, even regarding the most recent events. The Western perspective is also addressed (there's a whole chapter on America's role in establishing hegemony in the region post-Cold War era), but only insofar as to convey the significant impact that Western views have had on the region, given their frequent tendency to ignore the historical and present context when dealing with it.
Reading this made me appreciate the fact that a lot of the issues that plague the Middle East to this day are fundamentally ingrained in its geopolitical history: from the arbitrary forced formation of nation-states post World War I, to the frequent outsider intervention of Britain, France, the Soviets, and the US, to the unique natural (oil-rich) and political environment of the nation-states themselves, allowing authoritarian governments to prosper and persist at the expense of their people, while hindering the development of any viable movements that might actually be able to replace them and last. Islam is only one part of a bigger picture, and to focus primarily on the religious aspect of things, for good or bad, is to ignore the fact that there are other primary and often material causes involved that would encourage the people of the Middle East to turn to Islamist movements in the first place; many of these causes are problems that have no easy or simple solutions to begin with. It's difficult to expect any government to be able to satisfy the demands of a population that is ideologically at odds with itself or impose reforms via a political system fundamentally designed to discourage such developments.
Oddly enough, as the book points out, there's even an example of a secular state turning more religious (Turkey) and a religious state turning more secular (Iran) within the same timespan, both because of the population growing dissatisfied with the way their regimes were dealing with their issues... and in other words, life is complicated.