A veteran reporter’s clear-eyed history of the Middle East.
BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen traces the forces and flashpoints that shaped the modern Middle East, blending history with on-the-ground insight. A gripping, accessible guide to the region’s politics, conflicts, and power struggles.
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The Making of the Modern Middle East
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A veteran reporter’s clear-eyed history of the Middle East.
BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen traces the forces and flashpoints that shaped the modern Middle East, blending history with on-the-ground insight. A gripping, accessible guide to the region’s politics, conflicts, and power struggles.
- Book Synopsis
-
A Sunday Times Paperback of the Year A Spectator and New Statesman Book of the Year 'An illuminating and riveting read.' - Jonathan Dimbleby
Jeremy Bowen, the International Editor of the BBC, has been covering the Middle East since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present. Here, Bowen offers you a gripping and invaluable guide to the modern Middle East, how it came to be and what its future might hold.
In The Making of the Modern Middle East - in part based on his acclaimed podcast, 'Our Man in the Middle East' - Bowen takes you on a journey across the region and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders, whether brutal or benign.
He explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control.
Clear throughout is Bowen's deep understanding of the political, cultural and religious differences between countries as diverse as Erdogan's Turkey, Assad's Syria, Netanyahu's Israel, and Palestine, whether Hamas-controlled Gaza or the West Bank, and his long experience of covering events in the region.
'[A] compelling blend of sweeping history and vivid memoir' - Mail on Sunday
Ideal for readers who…
- want a clear, gripping introduction to how the modern Middle East was shaped—and why it remains so contested
- enjoy journalist-led history that combines reporting from the ground with big-picture context
- are curious about the region’s power struggles and how political, religious, and economic forces collide
- want insight into countries and leaders shaping the headlines, alongside the experiences of ordinary people
- like narrative non-fiction that blends sweeping history with vivid memoir
- About The Author
- Jeremy Bowen is the BBC's International Editor. He reported first for the BBC from the Middle East in 1990. He was based in Jerusalem from 1995 to 2000 and was the BBC's Middle East Editor from 2005 to 2022. He has reported from more than ninety countries, covering more than twenty wars. They include all those in the Middle East since 1990, as well as those in Afghanistan, Chechnya, El Salvador, Somalia, Rwanda, former Yugoslavia and Ukraine. His books include Six Days, War Stories, The Arab Uprisings and The Making of the Modern Middle East. He lives in London.
- Product Details
-
- ISBN
- 9781509890934
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Picador, (14 September 2023)
- Number of Pages
- 368
- Weight
- 282 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 197 x 131 x 27 mm
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