Synopsis
Now updated with a new chapter on the 7 October attacks and more.
A Sunday Times Paperback of the Year
A Spectator and New Statesman Book of the Year
‘An illuminating and riveting read’ – Jonathan Dimbleby
'Arresting . . . excellent, doom-freighted' – The Times
Jeremy Bowen, the International Editor of the BBC, has been covering the Middle East since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present. In The Making of the Modern Middle East he offers a gripping and invaluable guide, showing how it came to be and what its future might hold.
In part based on his acclaimed podcast, ‘Our Man in the Middle East’, Bowen takes us on a journey across the Middle East and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, and their leaders, whether brutal or benign. He explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control.
Clear throughout is Bowen’s deep understanding of the political, cultural and religious differences between countries as diverse as Erdogan’s Turkey, Netanyahu’s Israel and Palestine, whether Hamas-controlled Gaza or the West Bank. His long experience of covering events in the region make this an extraordinarily powerful account of one of the world's greatest problems.
Details
Reviews
“Written with modesty, grace and compassion, his account of 30 years working in the Middle East for the BBC combines his own personal experience with and a rare understanding of what makes this tortured region so dangerously combustible . . . The result is an illuminating and riveting read.”Jonathan Dimbleby, broadcaster, author and historian
“A gripping and compelling account that swings between gut-wrenching eyewitness stories and dispassionate analysis, laying bare the hopes and horrors of the Middle East in the twenty-first century. A remarkable book.”Professor Eugene Rogan, author of The Arabs: A History
“This book is a very personal and erudite history of a troubled region where enemies of impartiality abound, though some don’t even live there. I highly recommend this fascinating book which is also a testament to a better era in journalism.”Michael Burleigh, author of The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now
“This is a wise, compelling, fast-paced book – essential reading if you wish to make sense of the forces that have convulsed the Middle East, as well as unsettling all our lives, since the end of the Cold War.”Jason Cowley, author of Who Are We Now? and Editor in Chief of The New Statesman
