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This is an excellent background and analysis of the factors behind the current countries and conflicts in the what is now called the Middle East.  For foundational perspective, Aikman provides a short history of how the land has been seen and how the area has been referred to by the west over the centuries until the recent usage of the name "Middle East."

Aikman is a journalist who brings his knowledge of the region and his perception of people and movements in the various cultures.  Here he reconstructs the lines of culture, religion, politics, economics and ethnicity that has led to the individual political entities we know today.

He believes it is necessary to understand the peoples and nations of the Middle East as they understand themselves in order to understand what is going on there, and why things happen as they do.  I found his country by country approach very helpful in filling gaps in common knowledge and current perceptions.

The broader events of history are connected to the specific areas we now know as the nation-states in the area.  This gives us an insight into how regional and world events are perceived in that particular country.  Similarly, readers will appreciate the differences between the various nations of the region.

This historical understanding adds depth and brings insight to the current complexities.  It is good to get world events and the broad movements into context as they affected individual peoples and as they led to the particular political entities that have come and gone over the centuries.

Aikman does a particularly admirable job of clearly identifying the decisions, good and bad, of the European colonial powers in the middle East over the last few centuries and especially in the last two centuries that have contributed to the competing views of reality and clamors for power.  This is informative and fair.

See related reviews and articles on this site:
Arabs: Self-Identity and Foreign Views
Islam, A Realistic and Sympathetic Portrait
Islam:  Its Life and Values
Practical Peace
The Real Causes of "Islamic "Religious Violence"
Reclaiming Islam from the Hijackers: The Real Islam Stands Up
Saddam's Secrets
Sumerians, Arabs and the Invading Coalition
Taliban Trap, Terror and Torture

See this book with my review on Amazon.com
See my book reviews on Amazon.com
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OBJ

First reading notes written 29 May 2011
Review finalized for Amazon and Thoughts and Resources 6 July 2011

Orville Boyd Jenkins, EdD, PhD
Copyright © 2011 Orville Boyd Jenkins
Permission granted for free download and transmission for personal or educational use.  Please give credit and link back.  Other rights reserved.

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