A History of the Modern Middle East

This is an excellent survey. It is well researched, balanced and fair. It is also highly readable!

Beginning with the Ottoman Empire, he traces events right down to the Iraq war. It made clear the Sunni/Shia division, along with the other ethnic ones as well as clarifying the politics that the US has played in the region. All of a sudden, the newspapers began to make sense.

Good survey textbook for middle eastern history from pre-Islamic times to the post 9/11 world. If you are looking for a strong understanding of events in Middle Eastern History, this textbook serves that purpose. Negatives: could be better organized; not good for use in contemporary events, but good for understanding their underlying roots.

These books become outdated as soon as they are printed. Even history changes as new perspectives come about and new information comes to light. This book is a bit bewildering, but so is the subject matter. This is a bad introduction to the topic, but a good book for the next step, since it spends more time on theory and ideas rather than who said what when where and why. The book also weighs more than you would expect.

Richly detailed, very readable and filled with stories that make the history more accessible. Definitely one of the best textbooks I’ve used.

If you expect this to be an easy read, think again. It is an excellent reference esp. regarding "history", and in fact it was the primary text for a "history of the modern middle east" class I took a few years ago. By "modern" the author means post "industrial revolution" so don't think it means you are going to read much about Intifada or the Iraq War, etc. Otherwise it is a good resource.

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.