Recently Siun whom Du and I have got know via FDL emailed me asking me to recommend some books on how we got into this God awful mess vis a vis the Middle East and Islam. I replied suggesting two books by Robert Fisk.
- The Great War for Civilisation : The Conquest of the Middle East
- Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon.
Both of which are available from Amazon. USA Europe/UK To which I’ll add Anthony Shadid’s book “Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War” Amazon US Amazon Europe/UK Shadid is Washington Post correspondent. Shadid’s of Lebanese extraction and his ability to speak Arabic meant that he was able to interview people in Iraq for without an interpreter getting in the way. He shows the misery inflicted upon the most vulnerable of the population in a hard clear light without being maudlin. There are also innummerable blogs. I especially recommend:
- Riverbend
- Aunt Najma’s A Star from Mosul about whom I blogged here.
- And the indispensable Today in Iraq
What had slipped my mind at the time that I replied to Siun was that MESC recently conducted an email survey of 200 lecturers MES professors and experts and asking them for (PDF):
“provocative books [that] set me to thinking, books that either inspired me in one way or another or that I have found to be especially useful,books that I find interesting or think they are very important in the history of the field. These books sometimes forced us to rethink our approach to the field, and at other times were just the ten books I enjoy most.”
Due to time constraints only 50 experts replied. From which the MESC group compiled a list entitled: The 21 “Best” Books in Middle East Studies (PDF) They plan on updating ths list regularly I’ll keep you posted.
(And before anybody blasts me for mentioning a list that includes Bernard Lewis’ “The Emergence of Modern Turkey” USA Europe/UK his book on Modern Turkey is excellent. As is his “The Muslim Discovery of Europe” US Europe/UK If Lewis would stick to Turkish history and refrain from pontificating on Islam his legacy and that of his neocon devotees wouldn’t be the blood soaked mess that it is.)
Indexed under: Fisk - Robert
my studies begin … thank you!
I am already a regular reader of Riverbend - it’s so important to hear the voices of people who offer to reach across the chasms we have created and who offer to share their own unique insight into life as they know it. I continue to find it essential to remember that we are all just and wonderfully human beings, doing our best to make sense of life and find right ways of living this turn of the wheel - esp when it is so easy to distance ourselves with rhetoric, of any and all stripes.
So thank you for these pointers … I’ll be back with questions and thoughts.
Anthony Shadid’s book is great we’re all army brats going back for generations and my son is over there now. This war is so wrong did you see what they’re trying to do to Murtha?
Siun You’re welcome ask and I’ll do my best to answer.
Liz yes they’re ramping up, my hope is that they’re getting desperate, this one seems a very clumsy attack.
Mark, was it you who posted a link to a history of Israel over on FDL? IF so could you post it again - I thought I had it bookmarked, but…
Thank
JLR - Sorry to take so long to get back to you. No that wasn’t me. Somewhere or another I’ve a fairly recent list that covers a fairly broad range of books on it though. It’s not on this machine and for the life of me I can’t remember which machine it is on. I’ll hunt it down for you over the weekend, no big deal it’ll only take a few minutes, and post a reply Sunday night. Once again my apologies for the delay in getting back to you.
markfromireland