Based on Bowen's own extensive knowledge of the region from his role as International Editor of the BBC, The Making of the Modern Middle East is a revelatory account of power games between competing strongmen.
Jeremy Bowen, the International Editor of the BBC, has been covering the Middle East since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present. In The Making of the Modern Middle East - in part based on his acclaimed podcast, 'Our Man in the Middle East' - Bowen takes us on a journey across the Middle East and through its history.
He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders, whether brutal or benign, and he explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control.
With his deep understanding of the political, cultural and religious differences between countries as diverse as Erdogan's Turkey, Assad's Syria and Netanyahu's Israel and his long experience of covering events in the region, Bowen offers readers a gripping and invaluable guide to the modern Middle East, how it came to be and what its future might hold.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781509890934
Number of pages: 368
Weight: 282 g
Dimensions: 197 x 131 x 27 mm
Written with modesty, grace and compassion, his account of 30 years working in the Middle East for the BBC combines his own personal experience with and a rare understanding of what makes this tortured region so dangerously combustible . . . The result is an illuminating and riveting read. - Jonathan Dimbleby, broadcaster, author and historian
Arresting . . . excellent, doom-freighted - Justin Marozzi, The Times
Bears witness to how lofty dreams of the post-Cold War period crashed and burned ... with deep empathy and understanding of the roots of the conflict. - Emma Sky, The New Statesman
[A] compelling blend of sweeping history and vivid memoir . . . Bowen paints in the historical background masterfully and manages to convey the pressure, euphoria and horror of war reporting as well. - Mail on Sunday
A gripping and compelling account that swings between gut-wrenching eyewitness stories and dispassionate analysis, laying bare the hopes and horrors of the Middle East in the twenty-first century. A remarkable book. - Professor Eugene Rogan, author of The Arabs: A History
This book is a very personal and erudite history of a troubled region where enemies of impartiality abound, though some don’t even live there. I highly recommend this fascinating book which is also a testament to a better era in journalism. - Michael Burleigh, author of The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now
This is a wise, compelling, fast-paced book - essential reading if you wish to make sense of the forces that have convulsed the Middle East, as well as unsettling all our lives, since the end of the Cold War. - Jason Cowley, author of Who Are We Now? and Editor in Chief of The New Statesman
Few people are as well placed to authoritatively depict the making of the modern Middle East than Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s long-serving correspondent in the region . . . excellent - The New European
Jeremy Bowen is a master of succinct writing for television and in print, and his skill is showcased to brilliant effect in this distillation of decades of experience reporting from the Middle East. It’s a terrific book, pithy and pacy, equally at home telling stories of ordinary people as in encounters with princes and presidents. - Matthew Teller, journalist and author of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem
Jeremy Bowen is uniquely qualified to analyse and explain the region’s complex political and religious landscape. His book should be essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of this fascinating, but deeply troubled, part of the world. - Con Coughlin, author of Saddam: The Secret Life and Khomeini's Ghost
The Middle East is a mess, much of it the fault of our ancestors a hundred years ago. This book explains just how much of a mess by a commentator who returns time and again to the most dangerous areas. Jeremy Bowen’s... More
Thanks to Picador for this proof edition, one of the finest non-fiction books this year. Bowen's writing, with all of his experience as a BBC middle east correspondent behind it, is authoritative, even if at... More
I’d expected this to be good but am finding it very hard-going. It is full of biased opinion, sweeping statements and is badly-written to boot. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised given that the BBC has recently... More
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