A History of the Middle East: 4th Edition by Peter Mansfield (PDF)

Description

Over the centuries the Middle East has confounded the dreams of conquerors and peacemakers alike. This now-classic book, fully updated to 2009, follows the historic struggles of the region over the last two hundred years, from Napoleon’s assault on Egypt, through the slow decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire, to the painful emergence of modern nations, the Palestinian question and Islamic resurgence. For this third edition, Economist journalist and Middle East correspondent Nicolas Pelham has written an extensive new chapter examining recent developments throughout the Middle East, including the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the situation in Iran, the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict and relations with the US under President Obama.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Peter Mansfield’s History of the Middle East is clearly the work of someone passionately dedicated to the subject and someone intimately familiar with it as well, the author having spent a large time of his life in various parts of the Middle East. The book’s vast majority focuses on the past four hundred years or so, but starts with at least a brief treatment from the rise of Islam onwards sufficient enough to provide necessary backdrop.If you want to know a lot of the facts of what has happened in the Middle East -who the major actors were, what their motivations were, what significant events happened- this is a comprehensive listing of them and as such good to know. It is decently well written and an easy enough read comprehensible to the layman, but it is also a bit dry in many places.Although a comprehensive history I nearly gave it two stars since I found it dripping with bias, unlike some of the other reviewers. It is very pro-Arab and anti-Israeli/Jewish. Everything that has happened in the Middle East (which from reading this book makes it sound like the home of absolutely terrible political and cultural ideas since time immemorial) is always the outside world’s fault and never the Arabs fault. Certainly there has been a lot of negative and exploitative outside interference, but there has been even more home grown bad ideas in the Middle East. Likewise in the Arab Israeli conflicts the Arabs are always portrayed as forced into actions, even including suicide bombers killing Israeli children, whereas Israeli reprisals, up to pinpoint assassinations of Hezbollah leaders, are knee-jerk labeled viscious and indiscriminate over-reactions. These categorizations are not always wrong, nor are they always right, but they appear very blatantly based on favoritism of sides rather than what actually happened. In the same vein there is a clear preference shown for Arab Socialism and Nasser that I find hardly warranted from the ultimate results of such ideas the world over.The overall level of the bias seemed very high to me and made this a difficult book to actually finish. In the end it is a good historical account, but I would recommend any who reads this to follow up with Bernard Lewis’ “What Went Wrong” to get a different interpretation of the same account and decide for themselves what they believe in.

⭐Overall the work is well written, it functions more like a fluid history of the Middle East from the most ancient times to the modern era, with Pelham’s section being substantially more noticeable than I originally thought it would. He has a strong bias toward Israel and fails to be a neutral arbiter like Peter Mansfield, but overall a good book.

⭐I selected this book because I wanted to understand the historical background for today’s issues in the Middle East. I found the book to be thorough and descriptive, but slightly too detailed for me in following its timeline. The history of the region is frought with conflict, which I found difficult to understand without a prior knowledge of the unique histories of the individual countries. I would recommend this book for historical scholars, who are willing to dig deeper into today’s complex political dilemmas of the region.

⭐A professor recommended this book as a good overview of the Middle East. It is readable and relatively comprehensive considering the length of the book. I compared this book to another book with the same number of pages and focus, and found Mansfield’s book to be more inclusive and understandable.

⭐I leave it to the content experts to judge the merits of the historical accounts andanalysis of Middle East affairs. What I can comment on with some competenceis the boring manner in which this book is narrated. Richard Brown enunciatesclearly enough every word (although I do find is pronunciation of oriented(orien-tated) irksome). Beyound enunciation, however, I give this readinglow marks indeed. The monotonous, low key, unvaried rhythm is sleepinducing. In fact, I was only able to get through most of this narration byusing it as a sleeping aid, for which it was truly effective. I also found theself-important condescending tone of this narration off-putting.Recommendation: read the book; pass on the CD collection.

⭐Well written and thoroughly detailed, this is a great resource for over three thousand years of middle eastern history. Enhance your understanding of middle eastern history, politics and religion.

⭐I bought this book to get a better understanding about the middle east. I did get the education I wanted but would warn that it is not an easy read. You can get a little fustrated with all the different names of people and cities.

⭐Dry, hits EVERY detail. So many details and names it’s hard to keep track.However if you’re doing research, it’s the book you’re looking for.

⭐Peter Mansfield and Nicholas Pelham are very objective, and they recount many historical happenstances in the context of their effects on the present day. Nonetheless, it is a little dry at times, and difficult to read in places, especially for someone like me who does not have a lot of background in the Middle East. Your knowledge of various sects are taken for granted, they’re not introduced. That I found was a big drawback.Personally I preferred the last 3 chapters by Nicholas Pelham, who writes with more verve than Mansfield, though I am aware that others prefer them the other way around. Nonetheless, even when I was on familiar territory, they condense the narrative so much that it’s hard for an outsider to the subject.Ultimately, I found the chapters on Egypt (particularly Muhammed Ali), Iran/Persia, and Israel/Palestine to be the most interesting, followed by the third chapter on the Ottoman Empire and the Tanzimat Reforms. The book definitely has a focus on these countries, though I shouldn’t overstate that, since it does try to cover the whole region for the last 200 years – not an easy task.In essence, this is probably a brilliant book for a student who knows some of the ropes, but for someone new to the subject, I don’t really recommend it as an introduction – it’s far too dry.

⭐Sorry for previous email, I was in errorSteve Lane

⭐I got the book faster than expected, it is in very good condition, very pleased wiht my purchase. Thank you!

⭐The author presents a mass of information on the evolution of Middle East politics, with each other and with the outside world but the book remains readable. He brings out the importance of the different factions both within and across the countries of the region, which is a great aid to getting to grips with current developments.

⭐A brilliantly written book for those who are interested in knowing more about the middle east in general .

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