UNITED KINGDOM AUTHOR · HISTORY · BIOGRAPHY
Stewart, Desmond
THE thirteenth century was an eventful epoch for all Europe.
— from Turkey
Most acclaimed
The Arab world
1985
Vast political and economic shifts have transformed the Middle East since the 1985 edition of this award-winning work: the end of the Cold War, the Iran-Iraq war, and the Lebanese civil war; the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War; and the historic 1993 peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians, to name just a few. Which is why Robert A. and Elizabeth Warnock Fernea felt a need to return to the towns and cities they had written about - in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and on the West Bank - to see just how these changes had affected the people who live there. Taking the reader beyond the corridors of power to the most candid of kitchen-table confidences, the authors succeed brilliantly in revealing the human face of the Arab world.
Turkey
The modern history of Turkey has been marked by momentous political transformations and the rapid evolution of all aspects of cultural, social and economic life. The first comprehensive history to appear in twenty years, Erik J. Zurcher's book takes as its twin themes Turkey's continuing incorporation into the capitalist world and the modernization of the state and society in the face of this challenge. Beginning by exploring the closer links with Europe forged in the period following the French Revolution, the book looks at the changing face of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. Zurcher charts its progressive decline in the face of emerging nationalisms and European imperialism, and the fruitless attempts by the ruling elite to reverse the process through modernizing reforms. Arguing that Turkey's history between 1908 and 1950 should be seen as one continuous period, dominated as it was by the efforts of a coalition of Young Turk bureaucrats and officers to construct a sense of Turkish national identity and to introduce a programme of radical modernization and secularization, Zurcher goes on to offer a substantial and strongly revisionist interpretation of the influence of Turkey's 'founding father', Kemal Ataturk. In its account of the period since 1950, the book focuses on the growth of mass politics; the three military coups; rapid industrialization and migration; the thorny issue of Turkey's human rights record; integration into the international global economy; the alliance with the West (including membership of NATO and efforts to join the EC) and Turkey's ambivalent relations with the Middle East; the increasingly explosive Kurdish question, and the role of Islam in an avowedly secular state. Offering a new and original reading of Turkish history and drawing on all the most recent studies, this is an important book that will be of great interest to students as well as to readers with a general interest in Turkey.
T. E. Lawrence
1977
T.E. Shaw, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, was one of the most romantic, heroic, and enigmatic figures of his day. The subject of myth and hagiography, he was equally accomplished in several fields--as archaeologist, diplomat, writer, and soldier--and he worked throughout World War I and after in the Middle East in efforts to promote independent Arab states. His autobiography Seven Pillars of Wisdom is one of the greatest works of its kind. The esteemed military historian B.H. Liddell Hart wrote this study of Lawrence in order to pierce the clouds of legend. He discussed Lawrence's Oxford days, his experiences as an intelligence officer in Egypt, and in particular the tactics of guerrilla warfare he practiced so effectively against the large Turkish armies during World War I. Liddell Hart was one of the few to give Lawrence his full justice as both a man and a brilliant soldier. Long out-of-print, this book unravels the many puzzling features of Lawrence's story and restores him to his proper place as one of the twentieth century's heroic, but very human, figures.