The Middle East: A History 6th Edition

by William Ochsenwald (Author), Sydney Nettleton Fisher (Author)

9 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0072442335

ISBN-10: 0072442336

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Praised for its straightforward and accessible style, this text provides a general introduction to the chief elements in Middle Eastern history, allowing readers to proceed into more specialized topics and themes with a solid understanding of the most current scholarship in the field.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 6th edition (June 4, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 768 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0072442336
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0072442335
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.22 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,027,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,118 in Middle Eastern History (Books)
- #9,012 in Middle East History

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9 ratings

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Joseph F. Birchmeier

Interesting and Easy Read

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2007

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Obviously a very extensive and difficult topic to cover, I thought that the organization of the book made this book not only easy to read, but also incredibly informative. After reading the book, I felt that I had a good understanding of the history of the Middle East, the problems that have been overcome, and the issues still to be resolved. Would highly recommend.

12 people found this helpful

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Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2018

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Great book. Fast shpping. Highly recommend.

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Iris Greene

An English major's perspective

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2010

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I am an undergrad English major who is by no means an history buff and who, prior to her Middle Eastern history class last semester, had very little knowledge of the Middle East's past. This certainly colors my perspective of this book. However, as a non-history-person, I found it dense, hard to read, and poorly organized on a sentence-and-paragraph level.

This subject is, in my opinion, far too broad to be condensed into such a (relatively) short text--it deserves volumes, not a single book. Consequently, in order to fit everything, the authors for the most part pared down the content to names, places, and dates, including very little interpretation and explanation. I, for one, found it difficult to imagine the historical Middle East based only on these bare-bones facts, so I couldn't connect with the material and, therefore, couldn't really retain any of it.

Probably in consequence of the super-condensation of the content, sentences and paragraphs tended to be jumpy. There were quite a few cases in which the topic would change mid-sentence, with no warning and no apparent relation between the two topics. I found similar abrupt subject switches inter- and intra-paragraph.

This last item may be nitpicking, but I did find a couple of typos and grammatical errors in the text, which (as something of a grammarian) I found highly distracting.

...But, then again, I can only speak from my perspective; the other two reviewers, who may have had more prior experience with history than I have, seemed to enjoy the book well enough.

In a much more positive vein, I will say that the bibliographies at the end of every chapter were both impressive and immensely helpful--particularly if, for instance, you have to do outside readings or research.

I wrote that particular review right after finishing the history course I mentioned, and I was pretty frazzled at the time. So the review is a less clear and forgiving (and more laced with vitriol) than it should have been.

I guess I do feel that the subject matter is a bit too complex to be tackled in such detail in a single volume. But the main problem, I think, is that the book seems to have been reviewed only by historians. I see this a lot when I edit essays and articles by specialists in their fields--a lot of knowledge is assumed, and the text doesn't make concessions for those who don't think like someone in that field. In this case, my more historically-minded and -informed husband understood the book a great deal better than I did. So if you're a history buff, you'll probably have a fine time with this book! If your mind works well with names, places, and dates, it's the thing for you. If you're more inclined to think in abstractions, it might not be such an easy read.

Also, I honestly do think that the text could use some help with sentence- and paragraph-level organization and transitions. In places it's very jumpy.

7 people found this helpful

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Athrun Aznable

Good book about the Middle East

Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2009

Excellent addition to any library. This book covers the Middle East quickly but effectively. It is written chronologically, but mainly covers the Middle East after the rise of Islam, only devoting 9 pages to pre-Islam. It does cover these areas effectively. It moves on to describe the history of the Middle East from the rise of Islam to modern times. This is an excellent reference book that gives a Bibliography page after every chapter, which there are 50 of. This will allow you to know the sources, as well as look at the sources they used for something specific, which is a great help, especially for a college research paper, etc. Overall this is a well-documented historical work, that is easy to read and gain an understanding of the Middle East.

5 people found this helpful

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Rahim Ali

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2016

great book!

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