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More About This Textbook
Overview
Precious oil and export markets, wars in Lebanon and the Persian Gulf, peace talks at the White House, terrorist eruptions: more now than ever, Arab affairs are the West's affair. And yet as we find ourselves increasingly enmeshed in its politics and economics, the Middle East remains a mystery to most of us, a world of dimly understood connections and impenetrable complexities. The Arab world at last becomes accessible in this book. The only study to include developments since the Gulf War and the historic pact between Israel and the PLO, Inside the Arab World gives us a complete and detailed picture of the region as it is today, as well as a clear sense of how Arab affairs have evolved and where they may lead.
Despite its abundance of oil, the Arab world has failed to produce a single successful economy. Michael Field, a recognized expert and longtime reporter on the Arab states, ably explores the cultural, political, and geographic reasons for this failure. Ranging from Algeria to the Gulf states to Egypt and Syria, he considers the fragmentation of society, the people's tolerance of bad government, corruption, and the deadening economic effect of Arab socialism. But he also shows how the region—influenced partly by exposure to Western media, partly by reforms imposed by creditors—is changing now, taking its first cautious steps toward democracy, whose opportunities so far have been most firmly grasped by Islamic fundamentalists.
Timely, thorough, and highly readable, this book offers much-needed insight into the Arab world as its politics and policies increasingly engage our own.
Editorial Reviews
Economist
When it comes to the Arab world (and, straying beyond his book's title, to non-Arab Iran), Michael Field is strong on both. With a refreshing lack of stridency he charts a course from the decay of the Ottoman empire to the uncertainties of today.
Financial Times
From a western viewpoint...'the Arab world will remain a difficult place for a long time.' Just a little less difficult, though, for the newcomer armed with this excellent handbook.
— Edward Mortimer
Independent [UK]
Moderate, thoughtful, and far-sighted, Inside the Arab World reminds us of the continuing importance...of the whole Middle East. For seventy years, it says, the Arab world was a failure. Now its intelligentsia demands legitimate government, its middle classes seek economic freedom, and its poor want their just share of the resources. The contest between these aspirations and the forces of religious obscurantism is of decisive interest to us all.
— Michael Sheridan
Middle East Studies Association Bulletin
Michael Field...offers a provocative overview [of the contemporary Arab world] that should stimulate discussion among both specialists and novices in study of the region.
— Don Peretz
New York Times Book Review
Comprehensive, lucid, and frequently insightful...[Field's] expertise in economic reporting shines when he discusses the problems of Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Egypt...He candidly describes [the Arab world's] problems and prospects, providing insightful individual chapters on Algeria's political turmoil, Saudi Arabia's deficits, and the quagmire of Israeli-Palestinian relations.
— Richard W. Bulliet
Library Journal
This is an important addition to the growing number of comprehensive surveys of the Arab world, written by Westerners who know the area well. Field is a journalist, most recently with the Financial Times; over the past 27 years, he has spent a great deal of time in the Middle East and has made hundreds of contacts. What makes his book unique, and especially valuable to researchers, is its focus on failure and reform in the various Arab states-an emphasis that requires economic and political analysis on top of the historical, social, and cultural narratives that often comprise the entirety of most other comprehensive works. For example, Field sees the Islamic fundamentalist movement as the result of economic failure and/or the need for political reform rather than as a strictly religious or cultural phenomenom. Field also covers the Gulf War and the Arab-Israeli peace process, making this book as timely as it is well written, fast-paced and nonjudgmental. While expressing the viewpoint of an objective Western observer, Field also manages to convey the various viewpoints of the Arabs observing the Westerner observing them-a much greater achievement. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries.-Ruth K. Baacke, Whatcom Cty. Lib. Sys., Bellingham, Wash.From Barnes & Noble
This detailedpicture of the Middle East provides insight into how Arab affairs have evolved and where they may lead. "...the first major study to take into account developments since the Gulf War..."-- Business Age (London).Product Details
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Meet the Author
Michael Field is the author of A Hundred Million Dollars a Day: Inside the World of Middle East Money and The Merchants—The Big Business Families of Arabia.
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