Rethinking the Middle East (Israeli History, Politics and Society) [Paperback]

Efraim Karsh (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0714683469 | ISBN-13: 978-0714683461 | Publication Date: April 1, 2003 | Edition: 1

Rethinking the Middle East runs counter to the received wisdom in modern Middle East studies. This discipline has been dominated by what may be termed a "culture of victimization"; it views the local populations of the Middle East Arabs in particular as the hapless victims of alien encroachment, and blames the region's endemic malaise on Western political and cultural imperialism. The author contends that the influence of the Great Powers has not been the primary force behind the region's political development, nor the main cause of its famous volatility. He argues that the main impetus has been provided by regional factors; and that even at their weakest point in modern history - during the final stages of the Ottoman Empire - the peoples in the Middle East have played an active role in the restructuring of their region.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Professor Efraim Karsh is based at the School of Humanities, King's College London. He is the Series Editor of the Israeli History, Politics and Society series and author of, amongst other books, Fabricating Israeli History.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714683469
• ISBN-13: 978-0714683461
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,412,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eleven articles with a unifying theme, August 2, 2004

By 

Jill Malter ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rethinking the Middle East (Israeli History, Politics and Society) (Paperback)

Efraim Karsh has written a great deal about the Middle East. Eleven of his articles appear in this volume, which serves to give us all a wonderful taste of his scholarship.

Many people have written about the role of the Great Powers in Arab history. Karsh draws the line when Arabs are portrayed as hapless bystanders to their own history. And these eleven articles all help point out where Arabs have made some serious missteps in the past century that they would be best not to blame others for.

This book refutes claims that Arabs have never had anything against Jews or Judaism, only Zionists and Zionism. It also points out that the trauma of the dispersion of many Levantine Arabs in 1948 was a largely self-inflicted phenomenon, not some long planned grand design by Zionists to deprive Arabs of their patrimony.

History is not a free-for-all in which all statements are of equal value. Truth helps one understand what is going on, it helps us infer details that we are not yet sure of, and it permits us to make intelligent predictions about the future. We're lucky to have authors such as Karsh who show a respect for truth that makes their writings worthwhile.