The Modern Middle East: A Reader [Paperback]

Albert Hourani (Author), Philip S. Khoury (Author), Mary C. Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 1994

This valuable collection of essays brings leading Middle Eastern scholars together in one volume and provides an unparalleled view of the modern Middle East. Covering two centuries of change, from 1789 to the present, the selection is carefully designed for students and is the only available text of its kind. It will also appeal to anyone with a general interest in the Middle East.
The book is divided into four sections: Reforming Elites and Changing Relations with Europe, 1789-1918; Transformations in Society and Economy, 1789-1918; The Construction of Nationalist Ideologies and Politics up to the 1950s; and The Middle East since the Second World War.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Albert Hourani (1915-1993) was Emeritus Fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford, and the author of A History of the Arab Peoples (1991). Philip S. Khoury is Professor of Middle East History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-editor of Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East (California, 1991). Mary C. Wilson is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and author of King Abdullah, Britain, and the Making of Jordan (1988).

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (April 7, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520082419
• ISBN-13: 978-0520082410
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #790,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful and readable text, December 1, 2001

By 

Alessandro Bruno (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Modern Middle East: A Reader (Paperback)

I came across this book by chance while searching for other Hourani titles. Hourani is an editor and writes the opening essay; nontheless, I found it to be an invaluable complement to his History of the Arab Peoples which desctibes 13 centuries of history. This volume has the room to cover in greater detail the ideas, customs and culture that accompanied and shaped the historical events. There are excellent essays on the shaping of Arab thought in the late 19th century and the ideological - modern transformation of Turkey/Ottoman Empire at the outset of the 20th century. Other essyas deal with the customs of the serraglio, cinema modern literature and economic affairs. It's truly encyclopedic and I find that the oxford encyclopedia of Islam ed. by Esposito is the volume that more closely approaches it. The essays cover the period considered the modern era (i.e from the French revolution and Napoleon's invasion of Egypt to the present)and features leading scholars' essays. I recommended it to one of my professors to use as a companion volume in his Modern Middle East course.