The Middle East and the West

by Bernard Lewis

Harper Torchbooks, 1966. Trade paperback. (No ISBN stated) Fair reading copy, pages soiled, stray underlining, price penciled on top of first end page, securly bound, all pages complete, fair wrappers, soiled, three tiny circles punched in outer bottom corner of front wrapper. "This is certainly the best short book on the Middle East known to this reviewer. It is a work of the highest level, combining elegance of style with an easy mastery of the subject. This is probably one of the best books on any historical-political subject in recent years... Professor Lewis defines the Middle East as a historical, geographical, and cultural entity, shows what the West meant (and still means) to Middle Easterners, and traces the main political and intellectual movements in recent times." — Walter Laqueur, "The New York Review of Books." "Lucid, concise, unencumbered with unnecessary detail, of a bare and authoritative simplicity, the fruit of great learning perfectly digested [this book] deserves to be widely read. The name 'Middle East' by which the heartlands of Islam are now universally known, is, as Professor Lewis points out, western-centered, a product of western military thinking for whom the area was — during the brief period of western dominance — a base, a crossroads, a center of communications to be won and secured in the course of the struggle for supremacy which European great powers waged so long and so ruinously .... The alien West has alienated the Middle East from itself. —" Elie Kedourie. History.

Genres: History, Middle East

164 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1968

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Bernard Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus at Princeton University and the author of many critially acclaimed and bestselling books, including two number one New York Times bestsellers: What Went Wrong? and Crisis of Islam. The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Internationally recognized as the greatest historian of the Middle East, he received fifteen honorary doctorates and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Reviews

[فائق منيف · Rating 2 out of 5]

اقتباسات من الكتاب:


محمد عابد الجابري: كل حوار مع الغرب لا ينطلق من معادلة (الغرب= المصالح) إنما هو انزلاق وسقوط في شباك الخطاب المغالطي التمويهي

برنارد لويس: من الصعوبة بمكان أن يكون المرء متسامحا وهو يعيش تحت التهديد

برنارد لويس: إن مبدأ أن الحاكم ليس فوق القانون، بل يخضع للقانون شأنه شأن أقل رعاياه شأنا، من المبادئ المحورية في التعليم الإسلامي

برنارد لويس: بينما لا يمكن ممارسة الديمقراطية –اليوم- بدون تحقق الحداثة فإنه يمكن قطعا، امتلاك الحداثة بدون الديمقراطية

برنارد لويس: أخيرا رأى البعض أن سر قوة الغرب يكمن في مؤسساتها المتميزة وفي الحكومة الدستورية والنيابية

كمال أتاتورك: إن مهمتنا الآن هي اللحاق بالعالم الحديث، ونحن لن نلحق به إذا قمنا بتحديث نصف المجتمع فقط

برنارد لويس: تعتبر الأسرة النووية أهم عامل في بزوغ الفردية الغربية، وصعود وانتشار الحضارة الغربية

برنارد لويس: كان للغرب فضل المبادرة في القضاء على نظام الرق، وظل الغرب متفردا في ذلك لزمن طويل

برنارد لويس: علم وتكنولوجيا الغرب اللذان جعلا البترول –في البداية- أمرا نافعا وضروريا، سوف يجعلانه عاجلا أو آجلا أقل أهمية

برنارد لويس: لقد أعفى البترول الحكومات الطاغية من الحاجة إلى فرض الضرائب ومن ثم التعرض للضغوط والآثار التي تنجم عن رفع الضرائب

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history but conveniently ignores a few relevant facts in Turkey's creation of a modern state.

[Juman Doudin · Rating 3 out of 5]

last chapter was dog shit

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 80 pages were very good. The second 60 were ok. Overall it suffers from his anti-Western slant which at times is hard to read. Still it is shorter than almost all of his later works, and definitely more focused.

[Fares Alsamawi]

الغرب والشرق الاوسط: سجال وتباين

[Mohamed · Rating 2 out of 5]

So blatantly orientalist and has such an annoying, degrading narrative of the Arab people.
Plus it's from 1964 so it's outdated.