Customer Reviews:
 Informative, impartial and interesting September 12, 2004
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
I was wary when I first bought this book due to it having been written by an American, and I was expecting it to have a pro-US bias. In fact it is completely impartial and covers every aspect of the Middle East thoroughly including politics, oil and religion. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about this fascinating part of the world. It will make you realise that matters are never as simple as you may have been led to believe.
 Not a simple history June 30, 2006
I. D. Miller (Solihull)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Like the previous reviewer, I was a little concerned as to how much this would be an overly simplistic American view of the Middle East. However it is very balanced, informative and expansive in its detail. There's only a couple of places that I thought were too US-biased, but that may be me rather than the author.
The book covers the history, politics, religion and culture of the region; the region being significantly more than what we'd usually call the Middle East as it includes North-East Africa and South-West Asia as well, from the Sudan to Afghanistan.
It is very good in simply explaining how certain key events (positive and negative) have influenced not only the region, but the whole word, and in many ways shape the way we all live today. Such events being the start of Islam, the rise of the Muslim world, the creation of the state of Israel and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.
But don't expect it to be an easy history lesson...the story of the Middle East is a very complex one.
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