21 of the best for Siun
Recently Siun whom Du and I have got know via FDL emailed me asking me to recommend some books on how we got into this God awful mess vis a vis the Middle East and Islam. I replied suggesting two books by Robert Fisk.
Both of which are available from Amazon. USA Europe/UK To which I'll add Anthony Shadid's book "Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War" Amazon US Amazon Europe/UK Shadid is Washington Post correspondent. Shadid's of Lebanese extraction and his ability to speak Arabic meant that he was able to interview people in Iraq for without an interpreter getting in the way. He shows the misery inflicted upon the most vulnerable of the population in a hard clear light without being maudlin. There are also innummerable blogs. I especially recommend:
What had slipped my mind at the time that I replied to Siun was that MESC recently conducted an email survey of 200 lecturers MES professors and experts and asking them for (PDF): "provocative books [that] set me to thinking, books that either inspired me in one way or another or that I have found to be especially useful,books that I find interesting or think they are very important in the history of the field. These books sometimes forced us to rethink our approach to the field, and at other times were just the ten books I enjoy most." Due to time constraints only 50 experts replied. From which the MESC group compiled a list entitled: The 21 “Best” Books in Middle East Studies (PDF) They plan on updating ths list regularly I'll keep you posted. (And before anybody blasts me for mentioning a list that includes Bernard Lewis' "The Emergence of Modern Turkey" USA Europe/UK his book on Modern Turkey is excellent. As is his "The Muslim Discovery of Europe" US Europe/UK If Lewis would stick to Turkish history and refrain from pontificating on Islam his legacy and that of his neocon devotees wouldn't be the blood soaked mess that it is.) |
posted by markfromireland at Saturday, January 14, 2006
