The Arabs: A History – Second Edition

The history of the Arab world is a story of colonization, war and resistance but also rich creativity, encompassing a diverse area from Morocco to Iraq. Eugene Rogan's acclaimed book traces five hundred years of tumultuous history, from the Ottoman conquests to today's world, drawing on accounts of politicians, poets, intellectuals and ordinary people to tell this story through the eyes of the Arab men and women who lived it.

About the Author :
Eugene Rogan teaches the modern history of the Middle East at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of St Antony's College. His previous book, Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire, won the Albert Hourani Prize. He lives in Oxford.

Review :
It is a fascinating [story], and exceedingly well told. Mr Rogan manoeuvres with skilful assurance, maintaining a steady pace through time, and keeping the wider horizon in view even as he makes use of a broad range of judiciously chosen primary sources to enrich the narrative A rich, galloping narrative that spans the Arab world...outstanding, gripping and exuberant...full of flamboyant character sketches, witty asides and magisterial scholarship, that explains much of what we need to know about the world today engrossing and capacious... compulsively readable Rogan gives a lucid account of political developments throughout the Arab lands, unpicking messy tangles such as the Lebanese civil war or the fragmentation of Palestinian political movements... One of the special features of this book is that it draws on Arab writings (by memoirists, journalists and others) to give an idea of how the Arabs have experienced their own history....one senses Rogan's underlying sympathy with his subject Anyone who seeks to understand why the Islamic world bears a grudge against the West should read The Arabs. Few scholars know their subject better than Eugene Rogan, while even fewer are capable of rendering so complex a subject so engagingly readable. It is a joy to open, and a deprivation to put down. With eloquence, verve, and understanding, Eugene Rogan rightly reminds us that the world, and the Arabs themselves, need to remember the past. If we are to build a better relationship between the Arab world and the West, if we are to avoid making the same mistakes again and again, we need to know Arab history from its many high points to its low ones. I can think of no better guide on this crucially important journey than The Arabs. The masterly management of the material goes along with plain English, free of academic jargon.