A collection of essays exploring the modern history of Middle East societies by looking at the interaction between the internal history of ideas and the social transformation of local elites under Western impact.
A tribute to Albert Hourani's career. The Ilan Pappe piece on the Husaynis and notables-to-nationalism is a bright spot. Ehud Toledano's historiographical essay is good, too. The others are, or seem, to be of low-to-middling quality.