Syria

Once in a while, not very often, a book intended to give our young a whiff of world history turns out to be a bravura piece of mini-literature. This is the case with Chelsea House's "Syria," the latest of a series about the creation of the Modern Middle East.In a lamentably brief space - 145 pages - it covers the Arab country's tortuous path from its subjugation by the Ottomon Empire at the dawn of the 16th century through its domination by the French in the modern era and on to its tenuous independence.Steeped in Biblical lore, buffeted by the intractable winds of politics, religion and bloody military ventures, the nation of some nine million economically deprived people faces a precarious future as it stumbles into the 21st century. This might have been encapsulated in a dry and bewildering collection of dates and facts typical of many "primers." Here, oft-told tales and ghostly, half-forgotten faces spring to new life.Historical background and evenhanded analysis alternate with bangup action.The disastrous wars with Israel, the draconian rule of Hafez Assad, the riveting personalities of the great-hearted Saladin, the far-seeing King Feisal, yes, and the young Winston Churchill - it's all there, deftly integrated into the crazy-quilt of the Middle East.The book is buttressed by a searching introduction by Islamic scholar AkbarAhmed and by a remarkably mesmeric gallery of photogaphs, some more than a century old. But its main power rests in the narrative.Author John Morrison, a noted Philadelphia journalist and poet, combines the terse, vivid style of a hugely gifted reporter with the dimension and color of a lyricist. Thus: "Just five feet, five-and-a-half inches tall, he was a little man. But he was as strong and tough as an Arabian saddle, and he had the endurance of a desert camel. In fact, it was said he could jump from a galloping camel while holding a heavy rifle, and hop back on again in midstride....He was....best known as Lawrence of Arabia."You don't have to be a callow teen to savor this "Syria." -- Hans Knight