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Dirk J. Vandewalle
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A History of Modern Libya First Edition

by Dirk Vandewalle (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
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Libya is coming in from the cold, but for most of the three decades following Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's self-styled revolution in 1969, the country was politically isolated and labelled a pariah state. Dirk Vandewalle, one of only a handful of Western scholars to visit the country during this time, is intimately acquainted with Libya. He offers a lucid and comprehensive account of Libya's past, and corrects some of the misunderstandings about its present. The story begins in the 1900s with a portrait of Libya's desert terrain and the personalities that shaped its development. Professor Vandewalle then covers Libya's history during the Italian colonial period (1911-1943) and the monarchy that ruled between 1951 and 1969. He goes on to discuss the subsequent regime of Colonel Qadhafi and the economic, political, and ideological developments that he engendered. Finally, he describes the most recent events that brought Libya back into the international fold. As the first comprehensive history of Libya over the last two decades, this book will be welcomed by scholars and students of North Africa, the Middle East, and by those who are visiting and doing business in the region. Diederik (Dirk) Vandewalle is Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College, and former chair of its Asian and Middle Eastern Studies program. His academic specialty focuses on the political economy of North Africa, and on strategies of political and economic liberalization in the region. Vandewalle is the author of Libya Since Independence: Oil and State-building ( 1998), editor of two volumes on Libya and North Africa, and author of numerous journal articles. He has received, among a number of awards, a Fulbright and Social Science Research Council grant for his research, and has been a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Institute of International Development and at Harvard's Center of Middle Eastern Studies.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0521615542
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0521615549
  3. Edition
    First Edition
  4. Publisher
    Cambridge University Press
  5. Publication date
    February 13, 2006
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6.25 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
  8. Print length
    274 pages
  9. See all details
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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
16 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Chris
5.0 out of 5 stars Best reference on Modern Libya
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2014
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Professor Vandewalle is recognized globally as a leading scholar of modern Libya. This concise yet readable history is an excellent introduction to Libya both before, during and after the late dictator's reign. It will not alone explain Libya's current challenges, but it is essential background to understanding them.
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Dylith
3.0 out of 5 stars Decent, but leaves the reader wanting
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2015
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I teetered between a C and D rating for this book. It offers a decent overview of contemporary Libya with a brief background on its colonial experience. Of particular interest was the detailed manner in which it examined Libya's oil and economic sectors during this time period. The book cover art is a little misleading. At first glance, the flag evokes images of the rebellion against the Gaddafi regime and the book has supposedly been updated to include these events; said updates however are so brief and lacking in their detail that they might as well not be included in the book. None-the-less history of course does its own job in helping the reader to understand the deeper roots of the more current unrest and these roots may be found within these pages. Unfortunately, the book itself is a bit of a clunky read; and reads as though the author took a number of independent papers on the subject and jammed them together in order to quickly create a book on Libya. In doing so, the author misses detailed examination of crucial aspects of Libyan history, particularly in the area of its foreign policy and within its military adventurism in neighboring Chad and Sudan. These conflicts are almost completely absent from the book as is much of Libya's other intra-African political interactions. The author simply was not a suitable choice to write a comprehensive history of the country and would have been a better choice for an examination of Libya's modern economic and structures and how they influenced internal political and social discourse. Worth a read, but fails to stand by itself.
2 people found this helpful
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Edmond Junker
4.0 out of 5 stars Libya as of today.
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2008
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I thought the book would give a modern view of customs ,geography and archytecture of this country but it was'nt like this.Instead the political history is presented which by the way is written very well.
I know quite a lot of this history as Libya was my second home for years but I feel a bit neglected when the book tells nothing about the people of this region.
5 people found this helpful
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James R. Maclean
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2016
(Disclaimer: the author of this review has no professional expertise in the Middle East. This is only a review of a book--in particular, the 2nd edition published in 2012)

This is very much a "present-oriented" account of Libya's history: everything presented in the book is very clearly intended to help explain the situation in Libya now. This is very natural, but it can be pushed too far. The Ottoman period (1553-1911) rates a few paragraphs; the Italian period (1911-1945), ten pages; negotiations to create the Libyan state, 8 pages; the monarchy (1951-1969), 21 pages; and the Qadhafi regime, 133 pages. Some readers will find this acceptable, although in my opinion, in order for this to work one really needs to be a succinct writer.

It seems to me that information is presented in a confusing and repetitive way. Despite having only read short articles about Libya's history (like the Area Handbook for Libya), I never once read anything at all in this book that surprised me. Worse, I was puzzled as ever about the attitudes Libyans had toward their newly-deposed leader.

One problem is, Vanderwalle presents Qadhafi (probably with good reason) as the central, and almost only, political actor in the Jamahiriyya (1969-2011); as such, he's arbitrary and original--like he could have done anything, and picked this. But Qadhafi was a product of, and continued to be a product of, his time and place. His framing of the great Arab struggle probably was chosen to resonate with younger Libyans. And yet, in early 2011, a revolution toppled his state and he was killed in the fighting. Why did this happen? We are advised that "tangible sign[s] that internal dissatisfaction was [...] at a breaking point" (p.138) were appearing, but seldom what those actually were. What led some Libyans to defend the Jamahiriyya to the death, and others kill their neighbors in order to destroy it? This book offers little insight,

RECOMMENDED

I recommend the book by Anna Baldinetti (although this will be difficult or costly for most readers) or "Divided we stand" (see below for references).
____________________________________________
SOURCES & ADDITIONAL READING

Anna Baldinetti,  The Origins of the Libyan Nation: Colonial Legacy, Exile and the Emergence of a New Nation-State , Routledge (2014)

Helen Chapin Metz (editor),  Libya : A Country Study (Area Handbook Series)(4th ed) , Government Printing Office (1987) -- available in many places for free online

"Divided We Stand: Libya’s Enduring Conflicts," International Crisis Group (14 Sep 2012) -- available for free online at ICG's website
3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars Needs Work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2011
Verified Purchase
The author exhibits a depth of knowledge and understanding of his subject. Yet the title "A History of Modern Libya" is a little misleading.

The history is less one of relating events and then interpreting their consequences and significance. Rather the book is most weighted to the author's views on Libya with relatively little historical underpinning. This should not necessarily detract from the validity of his conclusions but one is left with the feeling that a little more "proof" would be welcome. The book would have benefited enormously from more detail about the change in the economic and social life and structures in Libya. It would also have been improved by at least a few graphics (population growth, GDP per head, trade balance, oil production and prices etc). This would have meant one could avoid ponderous repetition of the same observations.

Finally the book could have done with some professional editing. There is far too much repetition and loose structure and (perhaps this is a little pedantic) but ponderous verbosity along with the to this, British ear, the wrong use of verbs (e.g. to augur).

In short I have to respect the author's grasp of his subject but am of the opinion that editing and serious peer review would have allowed the writer to shine more brightly and enabled the reader an easier passage.
7 people found this helpful
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虹蛇
5.0 out of 5 stars リビアの近現代史を概観するのに便利。
Reviewed in Japan on August 14, 2011
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オスマン時代から2005年までの歴史を200ページにコンパクトにまとめたリビア現代史概説。Amazon.comで中身閲覧ができるので、目次はそちらを参照。

巻頭の17ページにわたる年表は便利だが、文献目録は英語文献にほぼ限られている。本書の前身として、この著者には Libya Since Independence: Oil and State-Building があったが、そちらの方が専門的で、詳しい文献ノートがついている。

本書とほぼ同じ時代をカバーして本書よりやや詳しい後発の本として Libya: From Colony to Independence (Oneworld Short Histories) がある。
2 people found this helpful
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