Bernard Lewis (1) (1916–2018)

In 1960, when this book was new, the prospects of Turkey entering the European Union were somewhat brighter than they are in 2024. the progress towards a secularized but Islamic state, and a modern European style economy seemed easily attainable. The iterevening decades have clouded this picture, so the book is currently seen as an interesting historical artefact, than an explanation of how an Islamic state could merge with the greater world economic andplitical systems. It has a clear account of the arrival of the sucessor state to the Ottoman Empire, unmatched in current writing on that topic. Well, worth the reading, and a preparation for reading his later work "What went Wrong." I read the 1960 edition.… (more)

With the recent escalation of conflict in the Middle East I felt compelled to become more knowledgeable regarding the conflict and the history of the Middle East. Bernard Lewis is said to have been one of the foremost world experts on this complex part of the world so I thought this would be a good place to start. Spoiler alert - I gave up after 280 pages. Professor Lewis was clearly exceptionally learned and I am sure that those in academia would have found this book extraordinary. For my part I thought it was dense, very hard to follow and written in a manner that was far too academic for my taste. There is no question that the Middle East is steeped in a complex history however this book takes something complex and amplifies the complexity rather than distilling or interpreting it in a way that is accessible for those who are not as scholarly.… (more)