The 100 Best Middle Eastern History & Politics Books
A camel train passing Jerusalem in 1918, from The Library of Congress
The 100 Best Middle Eastern History & Politics Books is a reading list for those with a serious interest in understanding the modern Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Aimed at Western readers, the texts are the kind you'd expect to find on a Middle Eastern studies course at university.
1. A History of the Modern Middle East
This comprehensive work provides a penetrating analysis of modern Middle Eastern history, from the Ottoman and Egyptian reforms, through the challenge of Western imperialism, to the impact of US foreign policies. After introducing the reader to the region’s history from the origins of Islam in the seventh century, ... More »
2. Orientalism
By Edward W. Said | Used Price: 70% Off
Orientalism examines how the West has historically perceived the East and how Western imperialism has shaped these perceptions. Published in 1978, Said's work is a landmark in post-colonial studies. More »
3. The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East
By Juan Cole | Used Price: 80% Off
Renowned blogger and Middle East expert Juan Cole takes us “inside the youth movements in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, showing us how activists used technology and social media to amplify their message and connect with like-minded citizens” (The New York Times) in this “rousing study of the Arab ... More »
4. Resurrecting Empire
By Rashid Khalidi | Rock-bottom Price: $0.01
Begun as the United States moved its armed forces into Iraq, Rashid Khalidi's powerful and thoughtful new book examines the record of Western involvement in the region and analyzes the likely outcome of our most recent Middle East incursions. Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the political and ... More »
5. Colonising Egypt
Extending deconstructive theory to historical and political analysis, Timothy Mitchell examines the peculiarity of Western conceptions of order and truth through a re-reading of Europe's colonial encounter with nineteenth-century Egypt. More »
6. A History of the Arab Peoples
By Albert Hourani | Used Price: 60% Off
A History of the Arab Peoples is the authoritative account of Arabic civilisation. A history with a grand scope, it covers the beginnings of the Islamic empire right up until the present day. More »
7. The Hidden Face of Eve
By Nawal El Saadawi | Used Price: 50% Off
A classic of modern Arab writing, The Hidden Face of Eve receives fresh life with this beautiful new edition. Nawal El Saadawi's shocking account of female oppression in the Muslim world is as powerful today as it was when it was first published. El Saadawi's experiences working as ... More »
8. From Deep State to Islamic State
In his disturbing and timely book Jean-Pierre Filiu lays bare the strategies and tactics employed by the Middle Eastern autocracies, above all those of Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Algeria, that set out to crush the democratic uprisings of the 'Arab Revolution.'In pursuit of these goals they turned to ... More »
9. Impossible Revolution
By Yassin al-Haj Saleh; Robin Yassin-Kassab
“Since the start of the Syrian uprising, Saleh’s influence and his role as an incisive critic of extremism, dictatorship, and the effects of mass violence on Syrian society have offered powerful and compelling responses to the traumas that define the contemporary Syrian experience.”?Steven Heydemann, author of Authoritarianism in ... More »
10. Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East
By Asef Bayat | Used Price: 90% Off
Prior to 2011, popular imagination perceived the Muslim Middle East as unchanging and unchangeable, frozen in its own traditions and history. In Life as Politics, Asef Bayat argues that such presumptions fail to recognize the routine, yet important, ways in which ordinary people make meaningful change through everyday ... More »
11. The Venture of Islam
Hodgson's The Venture of Islam has been considered an exemplar work of history since its publication in 1975. The study traces the development of Islamic civilisation from its beginnings to the 12th century. Volume one examines the world before Muhammad and then the beginnings of the Muslim state. More »
12. Being Arab
By Samir Kassir | Used Price: 70% Off
Before his assassination in 2005, Samir Kassir was one of Lebanon’s foremost public intellectuals. In Being Arab, a thought-provoking assessment of Arab identity, he calls on the people of the Middle East to reject both Western double standards and Islamism in order to take the future into their ... More »
13. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
By Ilan Pappe
Here the famous Israeli historian Ilan Pappe offers Israeli archival evidence that Palestinians were ethnically cleansed between 1947 and 1949. More »
14. Beware of Small States
By David Hirst | Used Price: 80% Off
In this magisterial history of Lebanon, from the end of Ottoman rule to the Hezbollah and Hamas wars of today, acclaimed and fiercely independent Middle East journalist and historian David Hirst charts the interplay between a uniquely complex country and the broader struggles of the modern Middle East. ... More »
15. The Mantle of the Prophet
By Roy Mottahedeh | Used Price: 50% Off
Drawn from the first-hand accounts of eyewitnesses, Roy Mottahedeh's gripping account of Islam and Politics in revolutionary Iran is widely regarded as one of the best records of that turbulent time ever written.The true story of a young mullah, his life in the sacred shrine city of Qom, ... More »
16. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962
By Alistair Horne | Used Price: 80% Off
The brutal French colonial war in Algeria was fought from 1954 to 1962. A Savage War for Peace is the most authoritative book on this subject. More »
17. The Old Social Classes & The Revolutionary Movement In Iraq
By Hanna Batatu
Now back in print, this classic work has assumed a new significance in light of Iraq's recent history. The late Hanna Batatu's landmark study of Iraq's social formation during the twentieth century is widely regarded as one of the most significant works of recent times dealing with Middle ... More »
18. When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World
By Hugh Kennedy | Used Price: 60% Off
The "golden age of Islam" in the eighth and ninth centuries was as significant to world history as the Roman Empire was in the first and second centuries. The rule of Baghdad's Abbasid Dynasty stretched from Tunisia to India, and its legacy influenced politics and society for years ... More »
19. A History of Islamic Societies
By Ira M. Lapidus | Used Price: 80% Off
Long considered a classic, A History of Islamic Societies is now that much more useful a reference for general readers and scholars alike. Widely praised for its balanced and comprehensive account, Ira Lapidus' work has been fully revised in its coverage of each country and region of the ... More »
20. State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East
By Roger Owen | Used Price: 90% Off
Roger Owen has fully revised and updated his authoritative text to take into account the latest developments in the Middle East. This book continues to serve as an excellent introduction for newcomers to the modern history and politics of this fascinating region. This third edition continues to explore ... More »
21. Over-Stating the Arab State
By Nazih N. Ayubi | Used Price: 90% Off
This study of politics and the role of the state in the Arab world is aimed at students of Middle East politics, political theory and political economy. Ayubi's main objective is to place the Arab world within a theoretical framework that avoids both ""orientalist"" and ""fundamentalist"" insistence on ... More »
22. Iran: A People Interrupted
By Hamid Dabashi | Used Price: 90% Off
Praised by leading academics in the field as "extraordinary," "a brilliant analysis," "fresh, provocative and iconoclastic," Iran: A People Interrupted has distinguished itself as a major work that has single-handedly effected a revolution in the field of Iranian studies.In this provocative and unprecedented book, available for the first ... More »
23. The International Politics of the Middle East
By Raymond A. Hinnebusch | 80% Off
One of the major internationally recognised works on the international politics of the Middle East, this book systematically combines International Relations theory and Middle East case studies to provide a macro overview of the international relations of the region. The book has been widely used at both undergraduate ... More »
24. A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
By David Fromkin | Used Price: 60% Off
Published with a new afterword from the author?the classic, bestselling account of how the modern Middle East was createdThe Middle East has long been a region of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and ambitions. All of these conflicts?including the hostilities between Arabs and Israelis, and the violent challenges posed ... More »
25. A History of Saudi Arabia
By Madawi al-Rasheed | Used Price: 50% Off
This updated edition analyses the challenges, both internal and external, facing Saudi Arabia in the twenty-first century. Two new chapters discuss the political, economic and social developments in the aftermath of 9/11, painting a vivid picture of a country shocked by terrorism and condemned by the international community. ... More »
26. The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency
By Charles R. Lister | Used Price: 80% Off
The eruption of the anti-Assad revolution in Syria has had many unintended consequences, among which is the opportunity it offered Sunni jihadists to establish a foothold in the heart of the Middle East. That Syria's ongoing civil war is so brutal and protracted has only compounded the situation, ... More »
27. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History
By Ibn Khaldun | Used Price: 60% Off
The Muqaddimah, often translated as "Introduction" or "Prolegomenon," is the most important Islamic history of the premodern world. Written by the great fourteenth-century Arab scholar Ibn Khaldûn (d. 1406), this monumental work laid down the foundations of several fields ... More »
28. Forgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya
By Ali Abdullatif Ahmida | 70% Off
In Forgotten Voices, Ali Abdullatif Ahmida employs archival research, oral interviews and comparative analysis to rethink the history of colonial and nationalist categories and analyses of modern Libya. More »
29. Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism
Zachary Lockman's informed and thoughtful history of European Orientalism and U.S. Middle East studies, the 'clash of civilizations' debate and America's involvement in the region has become a highly recommended and widely used text since its publication in 2004. The second edition of Professor Lockman's book brings his ... More »
30. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture
From the middle of the eighth century to the tenth century, almost all non-literary and non-historical secular Greek books, including such diverse topics as astrology, alchemy, physics, botany and medicine, that were not available throughout the eastern Byzantine Empire and the Near East, were translated into Arabic.Greek Thought, ... More »
31. Nationalist Voices in Jordan: The Street and the State
According to conventional wisdom, the national identity of the Jordanian state was defined by the ruling Hashemite family, which has governed the country since the 1920s. But this view overlooks the significant role that the "Arab street"-in this case, ordinary Jordanians and Palestinians-played and continues to play in ... More »
32. Turkey: A Modern History
By Erik J. Zurcher | Used Price: 80% Off
This revised edition builds upon and updates the twin themes of Turkey's continuing incorporation into the capitalist world and the modernization of state and society. It begins with the forging of closer links with Europe after the French Revolution, and the changing face of the Ottoman Empire in ... More »
33. Water on Sand: Environmental Histories Of The Middle East And North Africa
By Alan Mikhail
From Morocco to Iran and the Black Sea to the Red, Water on Sand rewrites the history of the Middle East and North Africa from the Little Ice Age to the Cold War era. As the first holistic environmental history of the region, it shows the intimate connections ... More »
34. A Political Economy of the Middle East
By Melani Cammett; Ishac Diwan; Alan Richards
A Political Economy of the Middle East is the most comprehensive analysis of developments in the political economy of the region over the past several decades, examining the interaction of economic development processes, state systems and policies, and social actors in the Middle East.The fourth edition, with new ... More »
35. Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman
By Montgomery Watt | Under $1.00
A short account of the life and achievements of one of the great figures of history, this volume also serves as an excellent introduction to one of the world's major religions. More »
36. The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800
By Jonathan P. Berkey | Used Price: 60% Off
Jonathan Berkey surveys the religious history of the peoples of the Near East from approximately 600 to 1800 c.e. After examining the religious scene in the Near East in late antiquity, he investigates Islam's first century, the "classical" period from the accession of the Abbasids to the ... More »
37. The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global
By Fawaz A. Gerges | Used Price: 80% Off
Fawaz Gerges' book on al Qaeda and the jihadist movement has become a classic in the field since it was published in 2005. Here he argued that far from being an Islamist front united in armed struggle, or jihad against the Christian West, as many misguided political commentators ... More »
38. The Arab Spring: The Hope and Reality of the Uprisings
By David W. Lesch; Mark L. Haas
Beginning in late 2010, peaceful protests against entrenched regimes unexpectedly erupted in a number of Arab countries, causing political upheaval across the region. Through contributions from noted scholars, The Arab Spring provides a comprehensive overview of the causes, key issues, and aftermath of these events. Divided into two ... More »
39. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
By Gilles Kepel | Used Price: 90% Off
The late twentieth century has witnessed the emergence of an unexpected and extraordinary phenomenon: Islamist political movements. Beginning in the early 1970s, militants revolted against the regimes in power throughout the Muslim world and exacerbated political conflicts everywhere. Their jihad, or “Holy Struggle,” aimed to establish a global ... More »
40. The Modern History of Iraq
By Phebe Marr | Used Price: 50% Off
The Modern History of Iraq places in historical perspective the crises and upheavals that continue to afflict the country. The book focuses on several important themes: the search for national identity in a multiethnic, multireligious state; the struggle to achieve economic development and modernity in a traditional society; ... More »
41. Monsoon Revolution Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965-1976
At a time when Arab revolutionary movements are once again dominating the headlines, Monsoon Revolution offers a fresh reading of the Arab revolutionary tradition, examining one of its foremost illustrations. The Dhufar revolution in Oman (1965-1976) was the longest running major armed struggle in the history of ... More »
42. Quicksand: America's Pursuit of Power in the Middle East
By Geoffrey Wawro | Under $1.00
An unprecedented history of our involvement in the Middle East that traces our current quandaries there-in Iraq, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere-back to their roots almost a century ago. Geoffrey Wawro approaches America's role in the Middle East in a fundamentally new way-by encompassing the last ... More »
43. Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed
By John Phillips; Martin Evans | Price: $0.01
After liberating itself from French colonial rule in one of the twentieth century’s most brutal wars of independence, Algeria became a standard-bearer for the non-aligned movement. By the 1990s, however, its revolutionary political model had collapsed, degenerating into a savage conflict between the military ... More »
44. The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
By John J. Mearsheimer; Stephen Walt | 70% Off
The Israel Lobby," by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, was one of the most controversial articles in recent memory. Originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006, it provoked both ... More »
45. A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution
By Samar Yazbek | Used Price: 80% Off
A well-known novelist and journalist from the coastal city of Jableh, Samar Yazbek witnessed the beginning four months of the uprising first-hand and actively participated in a variety of public actions and budding social movements. Throughout this period she kept a diary of personal reflections on, and observations ... More »
46. Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993
By Yezid Sayigh
Built upon an unprecedented amount of access to PLO archives, official publications, and the internal documents of various guerrilla groups, as well as over four hundred interviews conducted by the author with the rank-and-file of the PLO, this groundbreaking book affords a definitive account of the Palestinian National ... More »
47. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World
By Avi Shlaim | Under $1.00
"Fascinating. . . . Shlaim presents compelling evidence for a revaluation of traditional Israeli history."—New York Times Book Review As it celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, the State of Israel could count many important successes, but its conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world at large casts a ... More »
48. What Kind of Liberation?: Women and the Occupation of Iraq
By Nadje Al-Ali; Nicola Pratt | 80% Off
In the run-up to war in Iraq, the Bush administration assured the world that America's interest was in liberation-especially for women. The first book to examine how Iraqi women have fared since the invasion, What Kind of Liberation? reports from the heart of the war zone with dire ... More »
49. The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860-1914
In this groundbreaking book, Ilham Khuri-Makdisi establishes the existence of a special radical trajectory spanning four continents and linking Beirut, Cairo, and Alexandria between 1860 and 1914. She shows that socialist and anarchist ideas were regularly discussed, disseminated, and reworked among intellectuals, workers, dramatists, Egyptians, Ottoman Syrians, ethnic ... More »
50. Inside Inequality in the Arab Republic of Egypt
By Paolo Verme; Branko Milanovic
Inside Inequality in the Arab Republic of Egypt: Facts and Perceptions Across People, Time, and Space comprises four papers prepared in the framework of the Egypt inequality study fi nanced by the World Bank. The first paper, by Sherine Al-Shawarby, reviews the studies on inequality in Egypt since ... More »
51. How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs
The story of a pivotal moment in modern world history, when Arabs established a representative democracy-and how the West crushed it When Europe's Great War engulfed the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalists rose in revolt against their Turkish rulers and allied with the British on the promise of ... More »
52. This Time We Went Too Far: Truth & Consequences of the Gaza Invasion
For the Palestinians who live in the narrow coastal strip of Gaza, the Israeli invasion of December 2008 was a nightmare of unimaginable proportions: In the 22-day-long action 1,400 Gazans were killed, several hundred on the first day alone.And yet, while nothing should diminish Palestinian suffering through those ... More »
53. Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution
By Nikki R. Keddie | Under $1.00
In this updated edition of Nikki Keddie’s Modern Iran?itself a substantially revised and expanded version of her classic work Roots of Revolution?the author provides a new preface and a fully annotated and indexed epilogue, reviewing recent developments in Iran since 2003. Keddie provides insightful commentary on Iran’s nuclear and ... More »
54. Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria
By Lisa Wedeen
Treating rhetoric and symbols as central rather than peripheral to politics, Lisa Wedeen's groundbreaking book offers a compelling counterargument to those who insist that politics is primarily about material interests and the groups advocating for them. During the thirty-year rule of President Hafiz al-Asad's regime, his image was ... More »
55. Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt
By Joel Beinin
Since the 1990s, the Middle East has experienced an upsurge of wildcat strikes, sit-ins, and workers' demonstrations. Well before people gathered in Tahrir Square to demand the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, workers had formed one of the largest oppositional movements to authoritarian rule in Egypt. In Tunisia, years ... More »
56. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject
By Saba Mahmood | Used Price: 90% Off
Politics of Piety is a groundbreaking analysis of Islamist cultural politics through the ethnography of a thriving, grassroots women's piety movement in the mosques of Cairo, Egypt. Unlike those organized Islamist activities that seek to seize or transform the state, this is a moral reform movement whose orthodox ... More »
57. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
By Amin Maalouf | Used Price: 80% Off
The author has combed the works of contemporary Arab chronicles of the Crusades, eyewitnesses and often participants. He retells their story and offers insights into the historical forces that shape Arab and Islamic consciousness today. More »
58. The Making of the Modern Gulf States: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman
The Gulf States are the focus of great international interest - yet their fabulous evolution from pearl-fishing to oil-drilling, their individuality and variety, are screened by a thick cloud of petro-dollars. This book, first published in 1989, tells the story of their formation, their evolution from colonial dependency ... More »
59. Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia
By Toby Craig Jones | Used Price: 50% Off
Oil and water, and the science and technology used to harness them, have long been at the heart of political authority in Saudi Arabia. Oil's abundance, and the fantastic wealth it generated, has been a keystone in the political primacy of the kingdom's ruling family. The other bedrock ... More »
60. Bad News from Israel
By Mike Berry; Greg Philo | 90% Off
This superb study . . . is extensive in scope, and scrupulously fair. It will be a landmark.' Edward S. Herman, co-author (with Noam Chomsky) of Manufacturing Consent 'Coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often dangerously superficial. Bad News from Israel is a strong contribution to scholarship ... More »
61. Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance
The Islamic scientific tradition has been described many times in accounts of Islamic civilization and general histories of science, with most authors ... More »
62. Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think
By John L. Esposito; Dalia Mogahed | Under $1.00
In a post-9/11 world, many Americans conflate the mainstream Muslim majority with the beliefs and actions of an extremist minority. But what do the world’s Muslims think about the West, or about democracy, or about extremism itself? Who Speaks for Islam? spotlights this silenced majority. The book ... More »
63. Beyond Islam
By Sami Zubaida | Used Price: 70% Off
In this magisterial work, Sami Zubaida draws on a distinguished career’s worth of experience trying to understand the region to address the fundamental question in Middle East studies: what is the Middle East? He argues, controversially, that to see it through the prism of Islam, as it is conventionally ... More »
64. We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria
By Wendy Pearlman | Used Price: 50% Off
Reminiscent of the work of Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich, an astonishing collection of intimate wartime testimonies and poetic fragments from a cross-section of Syrians whose lives have been transformed by revolution, war, and flight.Against the backdrop of the wave of demonstrations known as the Arab Spring, in ... More »
65. Defending the Holy Land
By Zeev Maoz | Used Price: 50% Off
This is a landmark analysis of the entire history of Israel's defense and foreign policies and a fundamental reassessment of its security doctrine. A scathing and brilliant revisionist history, "Defending the Holy Land" is the most comprehensive analysis to date of Israel's national security and foreign policy, from ... More »
66. A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered
By Kamal S. Salibi | Used Price: 70% Off
Today Lebanon is one of the world's most divided countries. But paradoxically the faction-ridden Lebanese, both Christians and Muslims, have never shown a keener consciousness of common identity. How can this be? In the light of modern scholarship, a famous Lebanese writer and scholar examines the historical myths ... More »
67. Turkey Between Democracy and Authoritarianism
Since the 1980 military coup in Turkey, much of the history and politics of the country can be described as a struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. In this accessible account of the country's politics, society and economics, the authors delve into the causes and processes of what has ... More »
68. Islam, Charity, and Activism: Middle-Class Networks and Social Welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen
By Janine A. Clark | Used Price: 60% Off
Throughout the Middle East, Islamist charities and social welfare organizations play a major role in addressing the socioeconomic needs of Muslim societies, independently of the state. Through case studies of Islamic medical clinics in Egypt, the Islamic Center Charity Society in Jordan, and the Islah Women’s Charitable Society ... More »
69. The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922
By Donald Quataert | Used Price: 60% Off
The Ottoman Empire was one of the most important non-Western states to survive from medieval to modern times, and played a vital role in European and global history. It continues to affect the peoples of the Middle East, the Balkans and central and western Europe to the present ... More »
70. Middle East Authoritarianisms: Governance, Contestation, and Regime Resilience in Syria and Iran
By Steven Heydemann; Reinoud Leenders
The developments of early 2011 changes the political landscape of the Middle East. But even as urgent struggles continue, it remains clear that authoritarianism will survive this transformational moment. The study of authoritarian governance, therefore, remains essential for our understanding of the political dynamics and inner workings of ... More »
71. A Modern History of the Kurds
By David McDowall | Used Price: 70% Off
The division of the Kurdish people among four modern nation states--Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran--and their struggle for national rights have been constant themes of recent Middle East history. The Kurdish lands have been contested territory for many centuries. In this detailed history of the Kurds from the ... More »
72. Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied
By Toby Dodge | Used Price: 70% Off
Offering a penetrating history of the formation of modern Iraq, Dodge uncovers numerous troubling parallels between the policies of a declining British empire and those of the current American government, which together form a timely and trenchant cautionary tale. More »
73. The Stillborn: Notebooks of a Woman from the Student-Movement Generation in Egypt
By Arwa Salih | Used Price: 60% Off
Arwa Salih was a member of the political bureau of the Egyptian Communist Workers Party, which was founded in the wake of the Arab-Israeli War and the Egyptian student movement of the early 1970s. Written more than a decade after Salih quit the party and left political life—and ... More »
74. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair
By Adeed Dawisha | Used Price: 50% Off
Like a great dynasty that falls to ruin and is eventually remembered more for its faults than its feats, Arab nationalism is remembered mostly for its humiliating rout in the 1967 Six Day War, for inter-Arab divisions, and for words and actions distinguished by ... More »
75. Egypt: The Moment of Change
By Rabab El-Mahdi; Philip Marfleet | 80% Off
Millions of Egyptians have demonstrated in Cairo's Tahrir Square to claim freedom after 30 years of oppression and autocracy, while Western commentators marvel about the timing and causes of what will soon be known as the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. With remarkable foresight, Zed authors Rabab El-Mahdi and Philip ... More »
76. Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Mediation
By Steven C. Caton | Under $1.00
In 1979, Steven C. Caton went to a remote area of Yemen to do fieldwork on the famous oral poetry of its tribes. The recent hostage crisis in Iran made life perilous for a young American in the Middle East; worse, he was soon embroiled in a dangerous ... More »
77. The Long 1890s in Egypt: Colonial Quiescence, Subterranean Resistance
By Marilyn Booth; Anthony Gorman
Egypt just before political eruption! Turns of the century in Africa's northeastern corner have been critical moments, ushering in overt popular activism in the hope of radical political redirection--as this volume's focus on Egypt's 19th-century fin-de-siècle demonstrates.The end of the 19th century in Egypt witnessed crisscrossing and conflicting ... More »
78. The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830-1980
By Lisa Anderson | Used Price: 60% Off
"At once steeped in detailed contextual knowledge and fully engaged with basic theoretical issues, Lisa Anderson's fine book can serve as an inspiration and a model for all who would push the analysis of state building in relation to social structure well beyond the European settings in which ... More »
79. All in the Family
By Michael Herb | Used Price: 50% Off
One of the most insightful and important contributions of the book lies in its well-articulated critique of the (simplistic) 'rentier state' theory, which attributes the resilience of Gulf regimes to their oil wealth and consequent ability to buy off the opposition. Such a critique is long overdue. The ... More »
80. Destroying Yemen
By Isa Blumi | Used Price: 50% Off
Since March 2015, a Saudi-led international coalition of forces-supported by Britain and the United States-has waged devastating war in Yemen. Largely ignored by the world's media, the resulting humanitarian disaster and full-scale famine threatens millions. Destroying Yemen offers the first in-depth historical account of the transnational origins of ... More »
81. Foreign Policy as Nation Making: Turkey and Egypt in the Cold War
By Reem Abou-El-Fadl | Used Price: 60% Off
After the Second World War, Turkey and Egypt were among the most dynamic actors in the Middle East. Their 1950s foreign policies presented a puzzle, however: Turkey's Democrat Party pursued NATO membership and sponsored the pro-Western Baghdad Pact regionally, while Egypt's Free Officers promoted neutralism and pan-Arab alliances. ... More »
82. Expulsion of the Palestinians
By Nur Masalha
In this meticulous work, based almost entirely on Hebrew archival material, Nur Masalha examines the Zionist concept of "transfer," or the expulsion of the Palestinian population to neighboring Arab lands. Masalha establishes the extent to which "transfer" was embraced by the highest levels of Zionist leadership, including virtually ... More »
83. Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East
By Brian Whitaker | Used Price: 90% Off
Homosexuality is a taboo subject in Arab countries. Clerics denounce it as a heinous sin, while newspapers write cryptically of "shameful acts." Although many parts of the world now accept sexual diversity, the Middle East is moving in the opposite direction. In this absorbing account, journalist Brian Whitaker ... More »
84. Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak
By Tarek Osman | Used Price: 60% Off
In this immensely readable and thoroughly researched book, Tarek Osman explores what has happened to the biggest Arab nation since President Nasser took control of the country in 1954. This new edition takes events up to summer 2013, looking at how Egypt has become increasingly divided under its ... More »
85. Remaking Women
By Lila Abu-Lughod | Used Price: 90% Off
Contrary to popular perceptions, newly veiled women across the Middle East are just as much products and symbols of modernity as the upper- and middle-class women who courageously took off the veil almost a century ago. To make this point, these essays focus on ... More »
86. Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity
By Afsaneh Najmabadi | Used Price: 50% Off
Drawing from a rich array of visual and literary material from nineteenth-century Iran, this groundbreaking book rereads and rewrites the history of Iranian modernity through the lens of gender and sexuality. Peeling away notions of a rigid pre-modern Islamic gender system, Afsaneh Najmabadi provides a compelling demonstration of ... More »
87. Contemporary Arab Broadcast Media
By El Mustapha Lahlali | Used Price: 70% Off
A balanced introduction to the 3 major Arab media channels: Al-Jazeera, Al-Hurra and Al-ArabiaEl Mustapha Lahlali presents a detailed study of the three dominant Arab media channels and their role post-9/11. The Arab world is currently undergoing a radical media revolution, with the launch of numerous satellite and ... More »
88. The Gulf Monarchies and Climate Change
By Mari Luomi
At the heart of Mari Luomi's salutary book is whether oil- and gas-dependent authoritarian monarchies can keep their natural resource use and the environment in balance. She argues that the Gulf monarchies have already reached their limits of 'natural sustainability', given that several of them are dependent on ... More »
89. The Rise of Colleges
Makdisi's important work traces the development and organisational structure of learning institutions in Islam, and reassesses scholarship on the origins and growth of the Madrasa. More »
90. Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Arab Middle Class
In this innovative book, Keith Watenpaugh connects the question of modernity to the formation of the Arab middle class. The book explores the rise of a middle class of liberal professionals, white-collar employees, journalists, and businessmen during the first decades of the twentieth century in the Arab Middle ... More »
91. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate
By Leila Ahmed | Used Price: 70% Off
This book presents an historical overview of women and gender in Islam. It is written from a feminist perspective, using the analytic tools of contemporary gender studies. The results of its investigations cast new light on the issues covered. More »
92. Cleft Capitalism: The Social Origins of Failed Market Making in Egypt
By Amr Adly
Egypt has undergone significant economic liberalization under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, USAID, and the European Commission. Yet after more than four decades of economic reform, the Egyptian economy still fails to meet popular expectations for inclusive growth, better standards of living, and ... More »
93. A History of Modern Morocco
By Susan Gilson Miller | Used Price: 90% Off
Morocco is notable for its stable and durable monarchy, its close ties with the West, its vibrant cultural life, and its centrality to regional politics. This book, by distinguished historian, Susan Gilson Miller, offers a richly documented survey of modern Moroccan history. The author's original and astute interpretations ... More »
94. Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector
By Sara Roy | Used Price: 70% Off
Many in the United States and Israel believe that Hamas is nothing but a terrorist organization, and that its social sector serves merely to recruit new supporters for its violent agenda. Based on Sara Roy's extensive fieldwork in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during the critical period ... More »
95. Religion and State in Syria: The Sunni Ulama from Coup to Revolution
By Thomas Pierret | Used Price: 70% Off
While Syria has been dominated since the 1960s by a determinedly secular regime, the uprising that began there in 2011 has raised many questions about the role of Islam in the country's politics. This book, which is based on the author's extensive fieldwork in Syria's mosques and schools ... More »
96. The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq
By Emma Sky | Used Price: 50% Off
When Emma Sky volunteered to help rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, she had little idea what she was getting in to. Her assignment was only supposed to last three months. She went on to serve there longer than any other senior military or ... More »
97. The Burning Shores: Inside the Battle for the New Libya
By Frederic Wehrey | Used Price: 60% Off
A riveting, beautifully crafted account of Libya after Qadhafi.The death of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi freed Libya from forty-two years of despotic rule, raising hopes for a new era. But in the aftermath, the country descended into bitter rivalries and civil war, paving the way for the Islamic State ... More »
98. Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East since 1945
By Melani McAlister | Used Price: 80% Off
Epic Encounters examines how popular culture has shaped the ways Americans define their "interests" in the Middle East. In this innovative book—now brought up-to-date to include 9/11 and the Iraq war—Melani McAlister argues that U.S. foreign policy, while grounded in material and military realities, is also developed in ... More »
99. The Middle East and the Making of the Modern World
In The Middle East and the Making of the Modern World, Cyrus Schayegh takes up a fundamental problem historians face: how to make sense of the spatial layeredness of the past. He argues that the modern world's ultimate socio-spatial feature was not the oft-studied processes of globalization or ... More »
100. The Arab State and Neo-Liberal Globalization: The Restructuring of State Power in the Middle East
By Laura Guazzone; Daniela Pioppi | 90% Off
Now available in paperback, this collection of essays offers an alternative approach to the study of today's Arab states by focusing on their participation in neo-liberal globalization rather than on authoritarianism or Islam. The effects of the restructuring of traditional state power engendered by globalization are analyzed separately, ... More »
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