Best Middle Eastern History

Published with a new afterword from the author―the classic, bestselling account of how the modern Middle East was created. “Wonderful...No book published in recent years has more lasting relevance to our understanding of the Middle East.” ― Jack Miles, Los Angeles Book Review.

The Great War spelled the end of the Ottomans, unleashing powerful forces that would forever change the face of the Middle East. Rashid Khalidi, author of Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East “This book opens up a window on vital chapters in the shaping of the Middle East as well as the history of the Great War, bringing together vivid personal details with a broad historical panorama of human suffering and heroism, the incompetence and folly of the general staffs, and the scheming of the great powers.”. No one is better equipped than Eugene Rogan to handle the course and impact of the war in the Middle East and he does a superb job, telling a complex and multifaceted story with great clarity, understanding, and compassion. Ali Allawi, author of The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace “Eugene Rogan has written a meticulously researched, panoramic, and engrossing history of the final years of the Ottoman Empire. Choice “Rogan draws on previously untranslated Arab and Turkish sources to give Western readers indispensable new perspectives on the Great War in the Middle East and its lasting effects on the region.... [A] rich narrative.... Michigan War Studies Review “Rogan tells a complex story enriched by many revealing vignettes, drawing much of his information from Ottoman Turkish and Arab sources little known in the west. Wall Street Journal “The book is not only exact and readable but also has the elements of a thriller and thus is all the more remarkable in view of its thoroughness in covering a linguistically and historically difficult subject.”. Economist , One of the Best Books of the Year “How a multinational Muslim empire was destroyed by the first world war, by a historian of the 20th century who is director of the Middle East Centre at Oxford University.”. Through its meticulous scholarship and its deft weaving together of the social, economic, diplomatic and military history of this neglected front, The Fall of the Ottomans provides an engrossing picture of a deadly conflict that proved catastrophic for the peoples of the region.”. Sunday Telegraph (UK) “[A] timely and capacious history which leaves the over-trodden Flanders mud and football truces in favor of the various campaigns – at best imperfectly understood, at worst woefully unfamiliar – which the Allies waged in the Middle East. Middle East Policy “[A] brilliant book that combines the academic rigor one expects from a serious work of history and a fluid writing style that makes it an enjoyable read.... The Fall of the Ottomans offers a comprehensive history of one of the most tumultuous and least understood fronts of the Great War.... Rogan's narrative is both precise and unhurried, while at the same time capturing the urgency and drama of events on the ground.”. Publishers Weekly “[A] sweeping and nuanced work.... Rogan's multifaceted analysis touches on everything from the use of Islamist discourse in political movements to the treatment of minorities in the modern Middle East.”. Kirkus “[A] well-researched, evenhanded treatment of the Ottomans' role in World War I.... An illuminating work that offers new understanding to the troubled history of this key geopolitical region.”. Rogan's presentation of a crucial part of that history, Turkeys' role in the First World War, is a painless, colorful and pleasurable means of getting a decent hold on it....

Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman drew upon his ten years of experience reporting from Lebanon and Israel to write this now-classic work of journalism. Thomas L. Friedman is an internationally renowned author, reporter, and columnist―the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes and the author of five bestselling books, among them From Beirut to Jerusalem and The World Is Flat . At the Times , he has won three Pulitzer Prizes: in 1983 for international reporting (from Lebanon), in 1988 for international reporting (from Israel), and in 2002 for his columns after the September 11th attacks. His fourth book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (2005) became a #1 New York Times bestseller and received the inaugural Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in November 2005.

As naval historian David F. Winkler examines these developing relationships, he offers a fascinating overview of Bahraini history, the entry of American humanitarian and economic interests, the establishment of an American naval presence in the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflicts, and the downfall of the Iranian shah, among other subjects. Naval Reserve and campaign director for the U.S. Navy Museum Cold War Gallery at the Naval Historical Foundation in Washington, D.C.

A sweeping and dramatic history of the last half century of conflict in the Middle East from an award-winning journalist who has covered the region for over forty years, The Great War for Civilisation unflinchingly chronicles the tragedy of the region from the Algerian Civil War to the Iranian Revolution; from the American hostage crisis in Beirut to the Iran-Iraq War; from the 1991 Gulf War to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Combining a novelist's talent for atmosphere with a scholar's grasp of historical sweep, foreign correspondent Fisk ( Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon ) has written one of the most dense and compelling accounts of recent Middle Eastern history yet. In the second, held four years later in Afghanistan, he declared war on the Saudi royal family and America.Fisk, who has lived in and reported on the Middle East since 1976, first for the (London) Times and now for the Independent , possesses deep knowledge of the broader history of the region, which allows him to discuss the Armenian genocide 90 years ago, the 2002 destruction of Jenin, and the battlefields of Iraq with equal aplomb.

Superb photographs of specific garments, with many close-up details, are juxtaposed with rare contextual photographs from the Israel Museum’s archives to create a tapestry of a people revealed through textiles, costume, and images. Daisy Raccah-Djivre is curator of the Jewish Wardrobe project and chief curator of Jewish Art and Life at the Israel Museum.

His design from time immemorial, regarding man's destiny, is filled with countless details about the future, especially the coming war with an Islamic coalition against Christianity and Israel. His paternal grandfather was an associate of Haj-Ameen Al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who was an ally of Adolph Hitler, who conspired with the Nazis during the holocaust.

“Scott Horton’s, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan , is a definitive, authoritative and exceptionally well-resourced accounting of America’s disastrous war in Afghanistan since 2001. Scott’s book deserves not just to be read, but to be kept on your shelf, because as with David Halberstam’s The Best and Brightest or Neil Sheehan’s A Bright Shining Lie , I expect Horton’s book to not just explain and interpret a current American war, but to explain and interpret the all too predictable future American wars, and the unavoidable waste and suffering that will accompany them.” — Capt. "Scott Horton's Fool's Errand is a deeply insightful and well-informed book on America's longest war, explaining why it remains as unwinnable as it ever was. -- Eric S. Margolis, author of War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet and American Raj: Liberation or Domination? -- Thomas E. Woods Jr., author of Nullification: How to ResistFederal Tyranny in the 21st Century and Rollback:Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse. -- Stephen M. Walt, professor of international affairs, Harvard University, author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.

Note: The chapters in the book are not in order and it is intentional. 1.

An eye-opening account of life inside North Korea—a closed world of increasing global importance—hailed as a “tour de force of meticulous reporting” ( The New York Review of Books ). NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST In this landmark addition to the literature of totalitarianism, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il (the father of Kim Jong-un), and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, where displays of affection are punished, informants are rewarded, and an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life. She takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and through meticulous and sensitive reporting we see her subjects fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we witness their profound, life-altering disillusionment with the government and their realization that, rather than providing them with lives of abundance, their country has betrayed them. A fascinating and deeply personal look at the lives of six defectors from the repressive totalitarian regime of the Republic of North Korea, in which Demick, an L.A. Times staffer and former Seoul bureau chief, draws out details of daily life that would not otherwise be known to Western eyes because of the near-complete media censorship north of the arbitrary border drawn after Japan's surrender ending WWII.

Hailed as “one of the most important works of history of our time” ( The New York Times ), this definitive chronicle of Hitler’s rise to power is back in hardcover with a new introductory essay by Ron Rosenbaum ( Explaining Hitler and How the End Begins ) commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of its National Book Award win. Ron Rosenbaum is the bestselling author of Explaining Hitler and The Shakespeare Wars and has written or edited six. other books.

In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. “Exceptional... A work strong in narrative flow and character portraits of the principle commanders... A highly pleasurable read.” ― The New York Times Book Review. This vivid, personality-driven account of the campaign to drive Axis forces from North Africa shows the political side of waging war, even at the tactical level.” ― Chicago Tribune. An Army at Dawn may be the best World War II battle narrative since Cornelius Ryan's classics, The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far .” ― Max Boot, The Wall Street Journal. His account of the Kasserine Pass disaster is alone worth the price of the book and stands as an exciting preview of the rich volumes to come. It is impressively researched and superbly written, and it brings to life in full detail one of the vitally important but relatively ‘forgotten' campaigns of World War II. Rick Atkinson strikes the right balance between minor tactical engagements and high strategic direction, and he brings soldiers at every level to life, from private to general. Among the many pleasures of an Army at Dawn are the carefully placed details--shells that whistle into the water with a smoky hiss; a colonel with 'slicked hair and a wolfish mustache'; a man dying before he can fire the pistols strapped in his holster.” ― Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Given his success with modern military history, the penetrating historical insights Atkinson brings to bear on America's 1942-43 invasion of the North African coast are not surprising.” ― Kirkus Reviews. “Atkinson, author of the best-selling The Long Grey Line (1989), a chronicle of the West Point class of 1966, here debuts an ambitious three-volume saga about the North African and European theaters of World War II. This first volume covers the conception of Operation Torch through the German surrender in Tunisia in May 1943 and reveals the author's skill in balancing big-picture strategizing with unit-level tactical fighting... Using battlefield reports and archival material, Atkinson tells a fascinating story of the North African campaign that is hard to stop reading, even though one knows the outcome.

New York was transformed in these two decades as the world's second-largest city and now its financial capital, thriving and sustained by the city's seemingly unlimited potential.

Within the México profundo there exists an enormous body of accumulated knowledge, as well as successful patterns for living together and adapting to the natural world. To face the future successfully, argues Bonfil, Mexico must build on these strengths of Mesoamerican civilization, "one of the few original civilizations that humanity has created throughout all its history." This translation of a major work in Mexican anthropology argues that Mesoamerican civilization is an ongoing and undeniable force in contemporary Mexican life.

"A Landscape of Myths" sets the stories within the context of the mountains, caves, seas, and rivers of Greece, Crete, Troy, and the Underworld. Complemented by lavish illustrations, genealogical tables, box features, and specially commissioned drawings, this will be an essential book for anyone interested in these classic tales and in the world of the ancient Greeks. Greek lit prof Buxton (Imaginary Greece: the Contexts of Mythology) treats the subject thematically, covering Greek origin myths, the character and functions of the Olympian gods, the exploits of heroes, the Homeric epics and the sagas of the House of Atreus and other tragic clans in which there is a "seamless connection between heroic exploits and domestic catastrophes."