Balanced, rigorous, and sparkling with insights, The New Middle East: What Everyone Needs to Know is a wonderful primer on a region long dominated by polemics and easy generalizations. James L. Gelvin brings a historian's sensibility and jargon-free prose to illuminate the afflictions that have wracked the modern Middle East-civil war, militancy, and authoritarianism, to name a few-while never losing sight of its enormous human potential. This is a must-read for veteran observers and newcomers alike.
James L. Gelvin is professor of modern Middle Eastern history at UCLA and a specialist in the modern social and cultural history of the Arab East. His many publications include The Modern Middle East: A History.
