The Chatham House Version: And Other Middle Eastern Studies [Paperback]

Elie Kedourie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2004

Here returned to print, at a timely moment in history, is Elie Kedourie's classic study of the Middle East in modern times. In analyzing British failures in the region during the zenith of their power and influence, Mr. Kedourie attributes much of Britain's faulty and disastrous handling of Middle East problems to what he calls "the Chatham House version." It was a view of Middle Eastern history and politics propounded and propagated in the various publications of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (known popularly as Chatham House), written or edited by Arnold Toynbee. The episodes that Mr. Kedourie investigates show "successive and cumulative manifestations of illusion, misjudgment, maladroitness, and failure." Together they point up hard lessons for the Bush administration or any outside power that would intervene in Middle Eastern affairs. "No better guide...can be found to the pitfalls awaiting those who seek to control the Middle East to their own advantage."—Asian Affairs "These twelve studies in the modern history of the Middle East [form] the most learned book, the most demanding therefore of rethinking, that has come out on the Middle East for many years, and anyone who in the future writes on any Middle Eastern subject, from any point of view, without consulting it, will do so at his or her grave peril."—London Telegraph

Editorial Reviews

Review

The most learned book, the most demanding therefore of rethinking, that has come out on the Middle East for many years. (London Telegraph )

No better guide...can be found to the pitfalls awaiting those who seek to control the Middle East to their own advantage. (Asian Affairs )

This new edition is all the more welcome because it carries an introduction by Davide Pryce-Jones. (New Criterion )

Landmark of historical scholarship. (New York Sun )

…Basic truths are worth repeating, and if they are stated in as cogent and lucid prose as Kedourie's they deserve renewed attention. (Washington Times )

About the Author

Elie Kedourie (1926–1992) was a fellow of the British Academy, editor of Middle Eastern Studies, and professor of politics at the London School of Economics. His many books on the Middle East include Islam in the Modern World, In the Anglo-Arab Labyrinth, and Arabic Political Memoirs. David Pryce-Jones's most recent book is The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs. He lives in London.

Elie Kedourie (1926–1992) was a fellow of the British Academy, editor of Middle Eastern Studies, and professor of politics at the London School of Economics. His many books on the Middle East include Islam in the Modern World, In the Anglo-Arab Labyrinth, and Arabic Political Memoirs. David Pryce-Jones's most recent book is The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs. He lives in London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (March 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566635616
• ISBN-13: 978-1566635615
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,135,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Per David Brooks, NY Times resident conservative editorialist, November 2, 2006

By 

W. J. Wade (Flagstaff, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Chatham House Version: And Other Middle Eastern Studies (Paperback)

This is not my review (hence you may ignore the 5-stars I've arbitrarily assigned: I've not read the book), but rather some selected (& hopefully pertinent) clips from an op-ed essay by David Brooks (NY Times, 11/2/06) on the relevance of Kedourie's essay, "The Kingdom of Iraq: A Retrospect" -- a portion of "The Chatham House Version" -- to today's US occupation of Iraq:

November 2, 2006
Same Old Demons

By DAVID BROOKS
Policy makers are again considering fundamental changes in our Iraq policy, but as they do I hope they read Elie Kedourie's essay, "The Kingdom of Iraq: A Retrospect."

Kedourie, a Baghdad-born Jew, published the essay in 1970. It's a history of the regime the British helped establish over 80 years ago, but it captures an idea that is truer now than ever: Disorder is endemic to Iraq. Today's crisis is not three years old. It's worse now, but the crisis is perpetual. This is a bomb of a nation.

"Brief as it is, the record of the kingdom of Iraq is full of bloodshed, treason and rapine," Kedourie wrote.

And his is a Gibbonesque tale of horror. There is the endless Shiite-Sunni fighting. There is a massacre of the Assyrians, which is celebrated rapturously in downtown Baghdad. Children are gunned down from airplanes. Tribal wars flare and families are destroyed. A Sunni writer insults the Shiites and the subsequent rioters murder students and policemen. A former prime minister is found on the street by a mob, killed, and his body is reduced to pulp as cars run him over in joyous retribution.

Kedourie described "a country riven by obscure and malevolent factions, unsettled by the war and its aftermath." He observed, "The collapse of the old order had awakened vast cupidities and revived venomous hatreds."

...The British tried to encourage responsible Iraqi self-government, to no avail. "The political ambitions of the Shia religious headquarters have always lain in the direction of theocratic domination," a British official reported in 1923. They "have no motive for refraining from sacrificing the interests of Iraq to those which they conceive to be their own."

At one point, the British high commissioner, Sir Henry Dobbs, argued that if Britain threatened to withdraw its troops, Iraqis would behave more responsibly. It didn't work. Iraqis figured the Brits were bugging out. They concluded it was profitless to cultivate British friendship. Everything the British said became irrelevant.

The Iraq of his youth, Kedourie concluded, "was a make-believe kingdom built on false pretenses." He quoted a British report from 1936, which noted that the Iraqi government would never be a machine based on law that treated citizens impartially, but would always be based on tribal favoritism and personal relationships. Iraq, Kedourie said, faced two alternatives: "Either the country would be plunged into chaos or its population should become universally the clients and dependents of an omnipotent but capricious and unstable government." There is, he wrote, no third option.

Today Iraq is in much worse shape. The most perceptive reports describe not so much a civil war as a complete social disintegration. This latest descent was initiated by American blunders, but is exacerbated by the same old Iraqi demons: greed, blood lust and a mind-boggling unwillingness to compromise for the common good, even in the face of self-immolation.

The core problem is the same one Kedourie identified decades ago. Iraq is teetering on the edge of futility. Perhaps a competent occupation could have preserved it as a coherent entity, but now the Iraqi national identity is looking like a suicidal self-delusion..."

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book., July 11, 2011

By 

J. Gordon (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chatham House Version: And Other Middle Eastern Studies (Paperback)

This is a great book by a great writer, a great man. No one has written about the Middle East with more knowledge and insight than Elie Kedourie. No one has so brilliantly exposed the warped picture of its history and politics as expounded by certain Western historians such as Arnold Toynbee. "The Chatham House Version" is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the true history and politics of the Middle East.