Customer Reviews

The Cauldron: The Middle East Behind the Headlines

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Most people speaking of the Middle East think of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. But the situation in that turbulent part of the world, where two-thirds of the known oil resources are located, is far more complex. The book under review provides a deeper insight into the six key issues of Middle Eastern political, social and cultural life which one could regard as six degrees of seperation between aspiration and reality. There is the clash between tradition and modernity, and the inability of almost all Middle Eastern societies, including very Westernised Israel, to come up with a synthesis of old values and new ethics. Amir Taheri, an internationally acclaimed journalist and author, bases the book on his own long experience of the region and the vast number of sources he has in the countries concerned. But it is at the level of the analysis that his book is especially interesting because he goes behind the healdines, as the sub-title of the book suggests, to dig out the undercurrents of history.In this way he helps us understand many events that would otherwise appear exotic and bizarre, and appreciate many political moves that might look illogical or downright foolish. The book is written in a simple but powerful prose and is thus accessible to both the scholars of the Middle East and those looking for a primer on the region. Farooq Ali, London, England

The Middle East has been in world news headlines for more than a century. As a meeting place of Islam and the West this region of the globe has often been a battleground as well as a meeting place for the rival civilisations on the opposite shores of the Mediterranean.
And,yet, it is remarkable how misunderstood the Middle East is in the West. ( The reverse is even more true: as the author of this book shows , Middle Easterners know even less about the West and much of what they know is fantasy!)
For the average man interested in politics the Middle East is where Jews and Arabs kill one another, where Kurds are driven out of their homes, and where Iranians and Iraqis devastated each other's homes for eight years.
But these are all headlines.
Taheri's ambition has been to find out what lies behind those headlines. He has succeeded where few scholars and journalists before him have. This is because he is a son of the region but with a deep knowledge of the West where he seems to have been living for some time, as a voluntary exile.
The only trouble I had with this book is the torrent of names, many of them difficult to pronounce let alone to remmeber, for a profane such as myself.Do we really need to know the names of everyone who was someone in some event?
Otherwise this is an easy-to-read book, full of information, and offering much insight into some of the complex issues of what is a zone of political turbulence even today.
Those who find it hard to understand why Arabs and Israelis cannot live together would do well to read this book. It offers some intelligent answers that one finds nowhere else.
A READER IN LONDON

The US-led coalition invades Iraq...
The Arab world is in turmoil....
Muslims everywhere are wondering what future they have.
The US, and the West in general, face terrorism of the most deadly kind for an unforeseeable future...
Israel is faced with years, may be decades, of mortal danger...
All these may be today's headlines. But they are all included and analyzed in this truly prophetic book that treats of the undercurrents of history in one of the most dangerous regions of the world.

The book, by an Iranian author an editor who now lives in the United States, first came out in the late 1980s but remains as up-to-date as any today. Its secret is that it does not bother with the passing appearances but digs deep into the profound and abiding causes of conflict.
I was given a dog-eared copy by a cousin, who had had it on her college reading list in 1992, and devoured the book at a single reading that lasted four or five hours.
Every minute of that time was well spent.
This is a sure classic.
Why is it not reissued so that many more people can read it?
Andrea Keame

This is a magnificent book, full of exciting analysis and new ways of assessing old assumptions.
Anyone who wishes to udnerstand what is in effect " the heart of darkness" in the political map of the world today should read this book.
Wendy Vederer, Bandar Sri Bagawan

This is an interesting guide to the copmlicated politics of one of the most turbulent regions of the world.
The author, a journalist who covered the Middle East for more than two decades,reveals the underlying causes of the turmoil, the violence and the terrorist disease that have affected the region for so long.
He argues that only democratization could stabilize the Middle East and allow its many different peoples to live together in peace.
For the time being, however, there are only two countries that could be described as democracies in the Middle East: Israel and Turkey. But even there democracy suffers from serious restrictions.
Thus we are unlikely to see peace in the Middle East anytime soon. A READER IN PARIS FRANCE

EXCELLENT BOOK, A LIGHT IN THE TUNNEL OF BLINDNESS.

NO WONDER THIS AMAZING MAN IS REPRESENTED BY A PUBLICIST LIKE BENADOR ASSOCIATES, WHO ARE PROMOTING HIM AND HIS VIEWS INCESSANTLY IN OUR MEDIA. OTHERWISE, I WOULD HAVE NEVER KNOWN OF HIM.

CONGRATULATIONS MR. TAHERI. YOUR WISDOM SHALL PREVAIL.

As far as Middle Eastern studies go this essay is a classic, a timeless gem that captures the complex reality of a region in pepetual turmoil.
To understand the roots of the Islamic revolution in Iran, the hidden causes of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the spread of terrorism as a political plague, the author, an Iranian journalist who now lives in the United States, providss the reader with a a guided tour into the labyrinthine realities of the region.
Although used as a textbook by some schools in Europe and Canada, " The Cauldron" is adressed to everyone and accessible to the average reader as well as the specialist.
Best book on the Middle East in a generation.

Although first published twenty years ago, this extended essay by an Iranian author and journalist remains the best primer on the comnplex politics of the Middle East. Here, we are really taken behind the headlines to learn about what matters in a region afflicted for generations by poverty, conflict , tyranny and war.