A History of the Middle East

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Full Product Details

Author:   Peter Mansfield ,  Nicholas Pelham
Publisher:   Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:   Penguin Books Ltd
Edition:   3rd Revised edition
Dimensions:   Width: 12.90cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 19.80cm
Weight:   0.308kg
ISBN:  

9780141011233

ISBN 10:   0141011238
Pages:   448
Publication Date:   07 August 2003
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Available  
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.

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Reviews

The problem with Middle Eastern history is that it never settles down long enough for anyone to chronicle it properly. No sooner has one cataclysmic event passed than another is waiting to happen. Here, Peter Mansfields masterly analysis of two centuries of conflict, ending with the Gulf War in 1991, is brought into the post-September 11 era by Economist writer Nicolas Pelham. Mansfield, who died in 1996, begins his account with the decline of the Ottoman Empire, a shift that signalled much of the trouble that erupted later. With a journalists eye for drama and a politicians grasp of subtle shifts in power, he shows that the Middle East has long been a strategic nerve centre and that the present troubles involve far more than a conflict between Arab and Jew. Mansfields definition of the Middle East will be questioned by some, as he takes it to include Sudan, Chad, Libya and even Greece. But his scholarly account illustrates how people from each of those countries played their part in creating a problem part of the world. As a historian, Mansfield misses no incident (and some of them at the time seemed innocuous) that later proved to have an impact. He is most clever in defining why the efforts of conquerors and peacemakers alike have always tended to self-destruct. The discovery of massive oil reserves and the growth of Islamic fundamentalism have complicated an already volatile situation, leading to the involvement of the superpowers. Mansfields well-organized overview of Middle Eastern political, religious and social conflict will remain an essential study aid for students and ideal reading for those who would like to know more about the region. Pelhams contribution, although brief, is shrewd in showing what developments we may next expect in this nerve centre of the world. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Peter Mansfield was born in 1928 in India. In 1955 he joined the British Foreign Office and went to Lebanon to study Arabic at the Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies. From 1961 to 1967 he was the Middle East correspondent for the Sunday Times. He became one of Britain's foremost experts on the Middle East. Peter Mansfield died in 1996.

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