Politics in the Middle East (5th Edition) [Paperback]

James A. Bill (Author), Robert Springborg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321005376 | ISBN-13: 978-0321005373 | Publication Date: October 1, 1999 | Edition: 5

This new edition of the best-selling Politics in the Middle East is an analysis of systems and processes in Middle Eastern politics that focuses on the themes of power, stratification, and development. Special emphasis is placed upon the forces of social change as they sweep across the region. This study also includes emphasis on such important issues as the role of civil society, the patterns of leadership, the resurgence of Islam, the role of women, the upheaval in the Persian Gulf, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and U.S. foreign policy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Longman; 5 edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321005376
• ISBN-13: 978-0321005373
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,317 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Critical Guide to Understanding the Middle East, April 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Politics in the Middle East (The Harpercollins Series in Comparative Politics) (Paperback)

This is a well-written book explaining the history of the Middle East. It provides the historic basis for understanding the current situation and tension in this region. James Bill is an excellent writer, and a well-known expert on the Middle East. A great book!

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful for context and history of the Middle East, March 15, 2011

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Politics in the Middle East (The Little, Brown series in comparative politics) (Paperback)

This book was a primary text for my Middle Eastern Politics class as an undergraduate in the early 1980s. It was in the second edition at that time, and has gone through a few subsequent editions as politics of the region develops. My particular copy remains useful for history and background purposes; there are chapters on the theoretical ideas of Islam and politics in general, the implications of the post-imperial and post-colonial institutions, and the various conflicts prevalent in the region. So many tend to see the Middle East in an Israel-Arab conflict context, but this text has but one of ten chapters devoted to that particular situation.

According to the authors, `The Middle East might once have been studied as an exercise in statics, but in the last years of the twentieth century, it is a dynamic and explosive area. To be dynamic is not necessarily to change or to change in any particular direction.' In fact, Bill and Leiden see many directions, some convergent and some divergent, in which the Middle East's future is pulled. These include economic, social philosophy, modernization, globalization, and religious revolution directions. It only adds to the complexity that the policies of the United States, Russia, China, and Europe toward the region and individual states within the region fluctuate on a regular basis. Written before the current conflicts of Afghanistan and Iraq began, it speculates on an uneasy future with conflicts of different sorts - a safe prophecy with regard to the Middle East.

I continued to find useful information from the text, and recommend it to anyone seeking a greater historical appreciation of the different contexts and conflicts of the Middle East, in terms here stretching from Morocco and Algeria in the West to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the East.