A review by raehink
The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite by Robert D. Kaplan

3.0

"Arabists" are diplomats, intelligence agents, scholars, adventurers, missionaries and military attaches serving in the Middle East. They were an elite group in the 19th-century. Kaplan contrasts their views of the Arab world with today's opinions...especially as they relate to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Some of the writing in this book was dry, but I learned so much that I am glad I stuck with it.