I am looking for a good source of information on the history of various countries in the middle east. I was debating whether to do it country by country of the region as a whole. Do any of you have an opinion of this and any suggestions for a reputable source. I am not too picky on what form of media its is either.

Thanks for the help, and post questions if I am being to vague

check out "A History of the Modern Middle East" by William Cleveland, i had to read it for class, lots of info

poor people living in sand.
some dude marries a kid and starts a religion.
a bunch of crazy poor people blowing stuff up cause they like the dude who married a kid and started a religion.

YellAgs, that was hilarious. Pretty concise...

quote:

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bunch of crazy poor people blowing stuff up cause they like the dude who married a kid and started a religion.

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You forgot that the dude's daughter's son was killed in a battle and there is now a rogue group of said religion that believes he's the crap, and they've decided to build a bomb and blow up israel.

Seriously, check out Bernard Lewis' "The Middle East." I did the book on tape, which they have in the Austin public library. I recommend it.

I thought it was the dude's daughter's husband.

thanks for the serious replies.

Probably won't help you, but here it is in 90 seconds.

http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf

In my ME history classes we used "A History of Islamic Societies" by Ira M. Lapidus

I don't know where you live but my father spent a number of years as a consultant in the Middle East. He also spent a number of years studying their history and their culture. He is fascinating to visit with on this area of the world. He lives in College Station but might be up for a visit or a phone call.

I would NOT read Bernard Lewis- he essentializes many aspects of the middle east- i agree, Cleveland's book is good. If you can get a hold of works by Ibn Khaldun- those are fascinating reads as well- he was a sociologist/historian before there really were such disciplines to speak of. He was alive during the 1300s- early 1400s.

and of course- you might be better off reading a book that is more about a specific area of the Middle East (Gulf Coast Countries vs. Israel/Lebanon/Syria vs. North Africa...)

Bernie06:

Bah, what does a graduate student at VT know. Now if you were a PhD candidate at a school like Syracuse or something, maybe someone would listen to you.

I recently read a book called The Peace to End All Peace: the collapse of the Ottoman empire and the making of the modern middle east which I highly recommend.

It is the best one volume treatment of how we got to this spot I have read. Churchill, Enver Pasha, Mustapha Kemal (Ataturk), Allenby, Lloyd George, Ibn Saud, Hussein, T.E. Lawrence, they are all in there and all crashing blindly into walls throughout.

It sort of starts in 1914 an sort of ends in 1924 and although the book was written in 1989 it reads as if it was written yesterday and was recently reprinted in paperback.

hmmm...BQ78, perhaps I should update that, as I AM a PhD candidate at SYracuse ;o)

Yeah and last weekend you were a looser moran all the way from your high school up to your doctorate.

"Power, Faith and Fantasy" was a great book about the US and our relationship with the region throughout history. Very well written and strongly researched. Highly recommended.