The Modern Middle East (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The Ottoman Empire dominated the Middle East in the name of Islam for four hundred years, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century..." (more)
Key Phrases: Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Second World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

An important survey of the vital and much-neglected cultural and social history of the region. – John Chalcraft, Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK

In his expansive survey of Middle Eastern history over the last century, Ilan Pappe questions modernization as the best framework for understanding the history and seeks to provide an alternative that devotes much-needed attention to the ways in which non-elite groups were affected by, and participated in, the dramatic political, social, economic and cultural transformations of the period. – Zachary Lockman, Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University, USA

Pappe directly challenges the negative stereotype of the Middle East as an undemocratic and pre-modern zone. He does this in an engaging manner, weaving his accessible narrative through chapters on political and economic history, rural history, popular music, the print and visual media, histories of Middle Eastern women, Islam and the region in the globalised 21st Century. – The Times Higher Education Supplement

With its wide geographic and thematic scope, Ilan Pappé's book is a welcome addition to the field of Middle Eastern and North African studies. Rather than taking the chronological, country-based, and primarily political focus typical of Middle Eastern history textbooks, the author studies social and political change through the prism of economic trends, rural and urban life, gender relations, music and literature, and more. He illustrates twentieth-century developments with examples ranging from Morocco to Yemen and Iran, and writes in a manner that is both clear and accessible. The interdisciplinary and regional breadth of this book will make it an asset to undergraduate Middle Eastern studies curricula.
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–Heather J. Sharkey, University of Pennsylvania

Product Description

This groundbreaking contribution to a more comprehensive view of the region in a post-September 11th world, is the first introductory textbook on the modern Middle East to focus on the urban, rural, cultural and women's histories of the region over its political and economic history. Distancing himself from more modernizationist approaches, the author is concerned with the ideological question of whom we investigate in the past rather than how we investigate the past.

Ilan Pappé begins his narrative at the end of the First World War with the Ottoman heritage, and concludes at the end of the twentieth century with the political discourse of Islam.

The Modern Middle East:

• includes a carefully argued introduction which discusses the methodology used in the textbook


• provides a thematic and comparative approach to the region, helping students to see the peoples of the Middle East and the developments that affect their lives as part of a larger world


• includes insights gained from new historiographical trends and takes a critical approach to conventional state- and nation-centred historiographies


• includes case studies, debates, maps, photos, an up-to-date bibliography and a glossarial index.

Accessible and original, The Modern Middle East is essential introductory reading for students on history or politics courses, as well as for journalists and those working in the region.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; New edition edition (July 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415214092
• ISBN-13: 978-0415214094
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,030,771 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)