The Arabs

This is an excellent review of Arab and Middle Eastern history up to the 1980s. (It was originally published in he 1970s, with a second, updated edition about 1986.) It fills in the gaps for those of us who have only been paying attention to that part of the world for the last decade or so. It also makes clear the tensions between the different ethnic groups in the Middle East, particularly between the Arabs and the Turks.

Mansfield presents a country-by-country survey of all the Arab peoples of the world. Mansfield is a historian and journalist bringing 30 years of field experience to this work. His analysis helps clarify how various Islamic movements have dealt with the challenges relating to modernization, technology and the modern world political system. As part of this process, he discusses the causes and results of the 1990 Gulf War. Note that Mansfield is focusing on Arab peoples, not all Islamic peoples of the world. However, in this process, he also includes a perspective on the relationship of the Arab countries and Islamic movements to non-Arab Islamic peoples and sects. This able author looks at the data in different ways, providing a multi-faceted view. He provides a historical focus, which helps to understand how we got where we are. Filling in many details often missed in the somewhat abstract chronologies we expect, Mansfield includes here an analysis by country. This brings to life the individual situations that are often ignored when the stock western political analysis refers to the "Arab World." As you read Mansfield's discussion of each country, you realize these are people like everyone else, trying to make sense of the puzzling forces and situations in which they are caught up. Real life rarely matches the simple back and white of political rhetoric and media sound bites. Extremely insightful is a third view in which Mansfield compares self-views of the various Arab peoples and the view of them by foreigners. Readers will find this book an enriching experience.

If you're looking for a compact but detailed history and description of the Arab world, it's difficult to imagine a book that can top this one. I picked it off the shelf thinking it would be just another dull chronology - but when I examined its layout, I just had to have it. It consists of three sections: a detailed and highly readable 300-page history of the Arab world; a set of brief chapters on each Arab country; and a final short section on how the Arabs are viewed by both themselves and Westerners.The ability to pick a single country to read about individually is the aspect of the book that most stands out for me: I was really interested in reading about just five or six Arab countries, and I wasn't about to buy a book on each of them. This book solved the problem brilliantly.

I had the opportunity to meet Peter Mansfield a few times when I worked in London between 1993 and 1994, a softly-spoken and dignified man who had made it his life's work to learn about and understand the Arab World and its relationship with the colonial powers. Sadly, Mansfield has since passed away, but this book remains as a beautiful epitaph that is as close to a definitive but digestible history of the Arab people as I've read. Recommended for those who want to understand the big picture before getting into the detail of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

This is an excellent brief history about the arab world. Very good chapters are the chronologies of different arab dynasties and guidelines between the past and present day