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ليبيا: المملكة العربية الجديدة في شمال إفريقيا
The memoir of the first American ambassador to the newly-created Kingdom of Libya in 1951 He stayed two years, traveling about the country and moving his office between the two capitals as well as the King's summer residence in the mountains. Libya at the time was impoverished, badly damaged by the fighting in WW II, and almost without the personnel it needed to begin economic development. Oil had not been discovered.
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 26, 2020
Book from another time: Reader in another time
When I was a little kid, my mom used to grow pansies. I mean, I was probably 3 or 4 years old. I remember how I looked so closely at them, especially the deep violet, velvety ones. They seemed huge and the color was good enough to eat! I didn’t eat them. Nowadays, I walk by pansies most times without thinking of those days. They have shrunk. And then there was the smell of horse chestnut trees in spring. When I see horse chestnut trees, that smell arises in my nose whether it’s real or not. And so it is with books. When I turned 13, my mother took me to a bookshop in Boston and told me to pick any book. I picked this one because I knew zilch about Libya and thought I would learn. I read it soon afterwards. I can’t remember what I thought, but a certain 1950s atmosphere still hangs about the faded text. The book was there back then, so was I, but I’ve changed. The book hasn’t.
Villard, who died in 1996, wrote this book in 1956. He had been the first American ambassador to the new country of Libya. World War II was only six years in the past when he flew into Tripoli. The country had been devastated by the fighting, some of the few towns were in ruins, there were no visible means of constructing a viable economy. Villard, obviously from a privileged background, had a solid career as a professional diplomat. No Cadillac salesman, he. He firmly believed in the goodness of American diplomacy---if we established bases in Libya, it was only right. We were defending the free world. If the USSR wanted to set up bases anywhere, it was a nefarious plot. This sort of 1950s thinking suffuses the book. If you really want information about Libyan history or society, you need to go elsewhere, not only because so much has happened since 1956, but because basically this is a diplomat’s “memoir”. Whom did I meet? What was the king like, up close and personal? How come I was able to fly around and others couldn’t? (US Air Force helped him out.) Our garden in the hills. There is not a single word of criticism. Villard seems a decent sort, did not speak Arabic, and was hampered by the fact that Libya was not really a country at the time. Never an independent nation or even kingdom throughout history, it was made up of three distinct parts which saw eye to eye on very little. Tripolitania in the west looked more to Europe, Cyrenaica in the east to the Arab world. Their histories differed greatly. The third part was vast and underpopulated, deep down in the Sahara. How to weld these three separate entities into a nation? There is no answer. But in reading this now very-old book, you see the drift. Iraq may come to mind.
In 1959, Libya discovered oil, a significant amount. It became much wealthier. In 1969, Gaddafi overthrew the king and turned Libya into a petro-dictatorship, with some pretty weird aspects. Once he was finally overthrown and killed in 2011, the three parts of Libya have come unstuck again. For this story, you’re going to need another book. I doubt if many modern readers will feel pressed to read LIBYA:…, but it has a feeling from another time, when we and the world were newer, less connected, less suspicious. Two stars for mild interest. I smelled that old smell, but you won’t.
When I was a little kid, my mom used to grow pansies. I mean, I was probably 3 or 4 years old. I remember how I looked so closely at them, especially the deep violet, velvety ones. They seemed huge and the color was good enough to eat! I didn’t eat them. Nowadays, I walk by pansies most times without thinking of those days. They have shrunk. And then there was the smell of horse chestnut trees in spring. When I see horse chestnut trees, that smell arises in my nose whether it’s real or not. And so it is with books. When I turned 13, my mother took me to a bookshop in Boston and told me to pick any book. I picked this one because I knew zilch about Libya and thought I would learn. I read it soon afterwards. I can’t remember what I thought, but a certain 1950s atmosphere still hangs about the faded text. The book was there back then, so was I, but I’ve changed. The book hasn’t.
Villard, who died in 1996, wrote this book in 1956. He had been the first American ambassador to the new country of Libya. World War II was only six years in the past when he flew into Tripoli. The country had been devastated by the fighting, some of the few towns were in ruins, there were no visible means of constructing a viable economy. Villard, obviously from a privileged background, had a solid career as a professional diplomat. No Cadillac salesman, he. He firmly believed in the goodness of American diplomacy---if we established bases in Libya, it was only right. We were defending the free world. If the USSR wanted to set up bases anywhere, it was a nefarious plot. This sort of 1950s thinking suffuses the book. If you really want information about Libyan history or society, you need to go elsewhere, not only because so much has happened since 1956, but because basically this is a diplomat’s “memoir”. Whom did I meet? What was the king like, up close and personal? How come I was able to fly around and others couldn’t? (US Air Force helped him out.) Our garden in the hills. There is not a single word of criticism. Villard seems a decent sort, did not speak Arabic, and was hampered by the fact that Libya was not really a country at the time. Never an independent nation or even kingdom throughout history, it was made up of three distinct parts which saw eye to eye on very little. Tripolitania in the west looked more to Europe, Cyrenaica in the east to the Arab world. Their histories differed greatly. The third part was vast and underpopulated, deep down in the Sahara. How to weld these three separate entities into a nation? There is no answer. But in reading this now very-old book, you see the drift. Iraq may come to mind.
In 1959, Libya discovered oil, a significant amount. It became much wealthier. In 1969, Gaddafi overthrew the king and turned Libya into a petro-dictatorship, with some pretty weird aspects. Once he was finally overthrown and killed in 2011, the three parts of Libya have come unstuck again. For this story, you’re going to need another book. I doubt if many modern readers will feel pressed to read LIBYA:…, but it has a feeling from another time, when we and the world were newer, less connected, less suspicious. Two stars for mild interest. I smelled that old smell, but you won’t.
October 22, 2019
عادة عندما يكتب السفراء مذكراتهم او مذكرات حياتهم في بلد ما ...سردهم يحوي العديد من الوقائع والمغامرات السياسية والتي خلى منها هذا الكتاب.
هذا الكتاب سرد سياحي وتاريخي لانطباعات مسافر لليبيا في فترة بداية الخمسينيات اكثر من انه مذكرات سفير دولة مثل امريكا..
بعض الصفحات تحوي معلومات مهمة علي القاعدة الامريكية وحياة الملك وكريمته الشخصية ومقابلات السفير لهم وسرد شبه تفصيلي لقبور المقبرة البروتستانتية في طرابلس عدى ذلك كله كان ادب رحلات وليست مذكرات سياسية..
المترجم لديه العديد من الاخطاء في تسميات الاماكن فعلي سبيل المثال استخدم اسم شحات بدلا من برقة لان اقليم برقة بالانجليزية يسمي سيرينايكا وهذا خطأ جسيم فالترجمه سببه عدم احاطة المترجم الغير ليبي بالتسميات المحلية العربية ويتحمل هذه الاخطاء بالدرجة الاولي الناشر .
هذا الكتاب سرد سياحي وتاريخي لانطباعات مسافر لليبيا في فترة بداية الخمسينيات اكثر من انه مذكرات سفير دولة مثل امريكا..
بعض الصفحات تحوي معلومات مهمة علي القاعدة الامريكية وحياة الملك وكريمته الشخصية ومقابلات السفير لهم وسرد شبه تفصيلي لقبور المقبرة البروتستانتية في طرابلس عدى ذلك كله كان ادب رحلات وليست مذكرات سياسية..
المترجم لديه العديد من الاخطاء في تسميات الاماكن فعلي سبيل المثال استخدم اسم شحات بدلا من برقة لان اقليم برقة بالانجليزية يسمي سيرينايكا وهذا خطأ جسيم فالترجمه سببه عدم احاطة المترجم الغير ليبي بالتسميات المحلية العربية ويتحمل هذه الاخطاء بالدرجة الاولي الناشر .
March 15, 2016
كتاب يتناول تجربة المؤلف خلال إقامته وعمله كأول سفير أميركي في ليبيا ويروي حياته اليومية وتنقله في مناطق الدولة ، كما يصف الأماكن والبشر الذين رآهم وتعامل معهم ، ويسلط الضوء على المساعي والجهود الأجنبية لمساعدة ليبيا على العودة للوقوف على قدميها بعد طرد الاحتلال الإيطالي وما خلفه من دمار وخراب ومرض وفقر وجهل وتخلف ، شاكرًا الملك إدريس وماقدمه للشعب الليبي وكل ذلك يبقى وجهة نظره فيه.
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October 30, 2016سرد تاريخي للواقع الليبي، و في بعض الأحيان يذكر حقائق تساعدك على فهم التاريخ، زي لما قال أن استقلال ليبيا كان بسبب تضارب مصالح الجميع ، فكانت النتيجة أن حصلت ليبيا على استقلالها
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews