Book description
Eugene Rogan has written an authoritative new history of the Arabs in
the modern world. Starting with the Ottoman conquests in the sixteenth
century, this landmark book follows the story of the Arabs through the
era of European imperialism and the Superpower rivalries of the Cold
War, to the present age of unipolar American power. Drawing on the
writings and eyewitness accounts of those who lived through the
tumultuous years of Arab history, The Arabs balances different voices ?
politicians, intellectuals, students, men and women, poets and
novelists, famous, infamous and the completely unknown ? to give a rich,
complex sense of life over nearly five centuries. Rogan?s book is
remarkable for its geographical sweep, covering the Arab world from
North Africa through the Arabian Peninsula, and for the depth in which
it explores every facet of modern Arab history. Charting the evolution
of Arab identity from Ottomanism to Arabism to Islamism, it covers
themes including the conflict between national independence and foreign
domination, the Arab-Israeli struggle and the peace process, Abdel
Nasser and the rise of Arab Nationalism, the political and economic
power of oil and the conflict between secular and Islamic values. This
multilayered, fascinating and definitive work is the essential guide to
understanding the history of the modern Arab world ? and its future.
With eloquence, verve, and understanding, Eugene Rogan rightly reminds
us that the world, and the Arabs themselves, need to remember the past.
If we are to build a better relationship between the Arab world and the
West, if we are to avoid making the same mistakes again and again, we
need to know Arab history from its many high points to its low ones. I
can think of no better guide on this crucially important journey than
The Arabs. Eugene Rogan teaches the modern history of the Middle East
at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of St Antony's College. His
previous book,
Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire
, won the Albert Hourani Prize. He lives in Oxford.
