Finally I am on the board, it took me a while to slog my way through this book. Not because it was uninteresting but because I was in a bit of a reading funk. Fromkin's book is a detailed account of the political and military campaigns in the Middle East during WWI that led to the partition of the Middle East along the geo-political lines that we see today. It is an interesting and informative read and sheds new light on the causes of the Middle Eastern mess that we have today.
For example, I was surprised to learn that the pan-arab nationalist movements that caused a lot of turmoil in the Middle East in the mid-twentieth century were actually orginiall advocated by the British.
5 comments:
Great to have you back! It can be tough to get through those reading funks. You've just got to slog through (and avoid tv, the internet and even great fun!).
Why did the Brits support the Pan-Arab movements? Was it to destabilize the current governments? Other colonial powers? That mess is old, but like everything else in the world today, it was certainly at least made worse by 19th century colonialism.
The Brits supported Pan-Arabism for a number of reasons not the least of which was that they did not understand its implications. The major reason was that they felt that once the Ottaman empire fell and Constantinople was in their hands they would be able to install a puppet Islamic regime who would be able to lead all of Islam, including their Indian subjects.
With this they felt that they would be able to exercise control over the Middle East, expand their empire and protect India from Russian attack.
glad you are back. i was wondering where our voice of socio-political non-fiction was going to come from.
Yearrgh! Nice to have you back. I need to read a book like this (or this book, I guess) so that I can have some clear counter arguments against all the people I am meeting these days who blame everything in the ME on religion.
Was it readable?
Jla, it was very readable and engaging.
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