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Turkey, Egypt, Middle East, Balkans
Ottoman and Recent History

Empires of the Sand : The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789-1923 by Efraim Karsh, Inari Karsh (Editor).  A new approach to the topic that argues that the Ottoman empire was much more competent and vigorous than the traditional 'Sick Man of Europe' stereotype.  Especially interesting to read this book in conjunction with some of the more traditional approaches like Goodwin and Fromkin.

  • The Emergence of Modern Turkey - Bernard Lewis

  • A Peace to End All Peace - the Fall of the Ottoman Empire - David Fromkin
  • T.E. Lawrence - 7 Pillars of Wisdom
  • Sandra Mackey - The Iranians

  • Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege

    From Publishers Weekly
    The Sarajevo newspaper Oslobodjenje managed to publish daily throughout the first two years of the Bosnian Serb siege despite intermittent lack of electricity, water and fuel?not to mention the incessant bombardment and sniper fire that accounted for some 6000 deaths in the city in 1992-1993. Artillery shells tore the newspaper building apart floor by floor until it collapsed; the staff then moved to underground rooms originally intended as atomic bomb shelters. Gjelten's account of Oslobodjenje's fight to stay alive is a perfect metaphor of the struggle of a sophisticated European city to retain its multiethnic character even as it is being turned into "a great prison, a place of torture and deprivation." The newspaper's staff represents a genuinely multicultural model of life and work, demonstrating that it was still possible to work together in harmony. Gjelten, who won the George Polk Award for excellence in overseas reporting, has covered the war in the former Yugoslavia for National Public Radio since 1991. Photos not seen by PW.
    Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

    From Library Journal
    The struggle of the staff of the daily Sarajevo newspaper Oslobodjenje ("Liberation") to continue publishing during the prolonged siege is here presented as a metaphor for the struggles of the entire city. The ethnically mixed staff had always worked well together, and, with few exceptions, continued to do so, despite rising levels of ethnic animosity around them. Publishing a 15th anniversary issue in August 1993 was the goal that kept the staff focused despite their difficulties: newsprint was delivered as humanitarian aid; electricity to run the presses was unreliable, but diesel fuel to run a generator was expensive; when the building was shelled, they moved to the basement. Gjelten heard their stories during several visits to Sarajevo in 1991-94 as National Public Radio's Berlin-based correspondent covering the Yugoslav conflicts. A well-drawn portrait of determination in the face of adversity. Recommended for most collections.

  • Middle East - Bernard Lewis

    Amazon.com Review
    To gain a better understanding of contemporary Middle Eastern culture and society, which is steeped in tradition, one should look closely at its history. Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University, considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the Middle East, spans 2000 years of this region's history, searching in the past for answers to questions that will inevitably arise in the future.

    Drawing on material from a multitude of sources, including the work of archaeologists and scholars, Lewis chronologically traces the political, economical, social, and cultural development of the Middle East, from Hellenization in antiquity to the impact of westernization on Islamic culture. Meticulously researched, this enlightening narrative explores the patterns of history that have repeated themselves in the Middle East.

    From the ancient conflicts to the current geographical and religious disputes between the Arabs and the Israelis, Lewis examines the ability of this region to unite and solve its problems and asks if, in the future, these unresolved conflicts will ultimately lead to the ethnic and cultural factionalism that tore apart the former Yugoslavia.

    From Library Journal
    A noted Middle East historian, Lewis (Islam and the West, LJ 5/1/93) has written a 2000-year history of a region stretching from Libya to Central Asia. He concludes with the effects of the Gulf War and the entry into negotiations of the PLO and the government of Israel. Beginning his history before the rise of Christianity and Islam, Lewis seeks to illuminate the connections between the ancient Middle East and the modern region. He outlines the histories of pre-Islamic Arabia and the two great empires of Sasanid Persia and Byzantium. These entities formed the backdrop for the rise of the Prophet Muhammed and the formation of the Islamic polity. Lewis concentrates on the cultural, social, and economic changes in the region while keeping the political narrative to a minimum. He includes many direct quotations from a variety of contemporary sources to highlight a given period and place, providing an immediacy of experience not offered by conventional narrative or analysis. Highly recommended.?Robert J. Andrews, Duluth P.L., Minn.

    • the Balkans

  • Balkan Ghosts - A Journey Through History -  Robert Kaplan
    Amazon.com Review
    From the assassination that triggered World War I to the ethnic warfare now sweeping Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia, the Balkans have been the crucible of the twentieth century, the place where terrorism and genocide first became tools of policy.

    This enthralling and often chilling political travelogue fully deciphers the Balkans' ancient passions and intractable hatreds for outsiders. For as Kaplan travels among the vibrantly-adorned churches and soul-destroying slums of the former Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, he allows us to see the region's history as a time warp in which Slobodan Milosevic becomes the reincarnation of a fourteenth-century Serbian martyr; Nicolae Ceaucescu is called "Drac," or "the Devil"; and the one-time Soviet Union turns out to be a continuation of the Ottoman Empire.

    From Publishers Weekly
    Journalist Kaplan's vivid, impressionistic travelogue illuminates the Balkan nations' ethnic clashes and near-anarchic politics.
     

     

  • The Balkans - Misha Glenny

  • Rebecca West - Black Lamb & Grey Falcon
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