Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East | 
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Product Description
A brilliant narrative history tracing today's troubles back to grandiose imperial overreach of Great Britain and the United States. Kingmakers is the story of how the modern Middle East came to be, told through the lives of the Britons and Americans who shaped it. Some are famous (Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell); others infamous (Harry St. John Philby, father of Kim); some forgotten (Sir Mark Sykes, Israel's godfather, and A. T. Wilson, the territorial creator of Iraq); some controversial (the CIA's Miles Copeland and the Pentagon's Paul Wolfowitz). All helped enthrone rulers in a region whose very name is an Anglo-American invention. As a bonus, we meet the British Empire's power couple, Lord and Lady Lugard (Flora Shaw): she named Nigeria, he ruled it; she used the power of the Times of London to attempt a regime change in the gold-rich Transvaal. The narrative is character-driven, and the aim is to restore to life the colorful figures who for good or ill gave us the Middle East in which Americans are enmeshed today.
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Customer Reviews:
• A Pleasure!!! 14 September, 2008
Scholarly and well written without being boring or pedantic--absolutely fascinating insight into events unfolding in the Middle East today--amazing new facts no one seems to be aware of.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A253UVL66INWNS
• Intrusion In The Holy Land 10 June, 2008
Although Meyer and Brysac don't tell why Americans learn so disastrously little from history, they've made some of the history itself wonderfully accessible. Now they do that for the modern history of the Middle East, whose "three universal faiths" extol "brotherhood and peace, compassion and humility" but whose "mortal disciples through the ages have engaged in reciprocal butchery. The very landscape of the Holy Land forms an outdoor museum of warfare." That's a sample of writing in this elegant, instructive book, the kind whose vividness thrusts readers through the otherwise baffling story of a region where the United States is again bogged down in confusion and loss, thanks to hubris grounded in ignorance.
What importance! How, forgive me, entertaining the authors make it! "Modern history" here means from roughly 1880, when the rapacious British invaded and occupied Egypt, largely to ensure control of the new Suez Canal. It ends with now, the last kingmaker - the predominantly greedy, short-sighted, full-of-themselves imperialists through whom Meyer and Brysac dramatically story-tell - being Paul Wolfowitz of very recent ill fame. I happened to have known two of the intruders: Kim Roosevelt and Miles Copeland, who bragged about their leading CIA roles in deposing Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq of Iran in 1953. Simplifying hard, the Land of the Free that has little compunction about using the dirtiest tricks while preaching democracy to the world has paid and will continue to pay hugely for that folly, whose current expressions draw heavily on the older ones.
However, Kingmakers doesn't simplify, nor pull punches either. Weary as everyone is of "this is a book every literate citizen should read," I find myself saying it to friends.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A20O2M1YMSQ8K8
• A Tour De Force Of Splendid Scope 05 October, 2008
This is a dandy book! The charismatic and fascinating persons featured have been the subject of much biographical treatment on a individual basis, but never woven into a timeline such as has been done by these authors ... a continuum which truly puts them into perspective. It shows what it was that made each of them worth knowing about, and illuminates their crucial roles in the drama that has devolved into a world scene that persists to this very day! A scene that seems relentless in determining the fates of so many on this planet no matter how fervently it may be wished that the destiny which seems to chain them to us might be disjoined, once and for all! Their successive stories make any fictional adventure pale to paltriness. What a job it was to do this ... to wrangle a monumental pile of researched elements into their proper sequences and cross-linkages with few, if any, errors! (Something I've considered doing with just a couple of these folks and found too daunting for my meager talent and store of patience, Wow!) Its extensive bibliography provides a rich resource to use as a basis for further inquiry and research in support of essays, articles, and yet additional insightful books similar to this and to such gems as "Milner's Kindergarten," "A Peace to End All Peace," and "Troublesome Young Men." Kudos to Meyer and Brysac!
- Reviewed by customer ID: AHHF4L9CQ1QFZ
• A "must Read" To Understand The Mess In The Middle East 27 August, 2008
The legacy of British Imperialism in the middle east, is the zone of conflict that still persists in the region. This is a fantastic book which clearly explains the history of British meddling, and the consequences of their perfidy.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2L6O551P46HWD
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