The Modern Middle East: A Reader

by Philip S. Khoury and Mary C. Wilson

Book Overview

This textbook assembles key writings on the modern history of the Middle East by some of the most distinguished specialists in the field. The book aims to meet the needs of a wide range of students. After a general introduction by Albert Hourani, the essays are arranged in four sections: reforming elites and changing relations with Europe 1789-1918; transformation in society and economy 1789-1918; imperialism and nationalism in the interwar period;...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1860649637
• ISBN13: 9781860649639
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Length: 680 Pages
• Weight: 2.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 5.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Very useful and readable text

I came across this book by chance while searching for other Hourani titles. Hourani is an editor and writes the opening essay; nontheless, I found it to be an invaluable complement to his History of the Arab Peoples which desctibes 13 centuries of history. This volume has the room to cover in greater detail the ideas, customs and culture that accompanied and shaped the historical events. There are excellent essays on the shaping of Arab thought in the late 19th century and the ideological - modern transformation of Turkey/Ottoman Empire at the outset of the 20th century. Other essyas deal with the customs of the serraglio, cinema modern literature and economic affairs. It's truly encyclopedic and I find that the oxford encyclopedia of Islam ed. by Esposito is the volume that more closely approaches it. The essays cover the period considered the modern era (i.e from the French revolution and Napoleon's invasion of Egypt to the present)and features leading scholars' essays. I recommended it to one of my professors to use as a companion volume in his Modern Middle East course.