About this title: Why did the most advanced civilization in the world lose its power and fall under the domination of others? This book examines how Middle Easterners responded to Western challenges in war, technology, sciences, religion, gender relations and other areas between the 18th and 20th centuries. It reviews the different ways in which the question of what went wrong has been formulated, the various diagnoses of what ails the Middle East, and the prescriptions for its cure.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: 01/2002
ISBN-13:9780195144208ISBN:0195144201
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 192 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: 01/2002
ISBN-13:9780195144208ISBN:0195144201
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 192 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: 01/2002
ISBN-13:9780195144208ISBN:0195144201
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 192 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: 01/2002
ISBN-13:9780195144208ISBN:0195144201
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 192 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: 01/2002
ISBN-13:9780195144208ISBN:0195144201
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 192 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: 01/2002
ISBN-13:9780195144208ISBN:0195144201
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 192 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date Published: 2001-12
ISBN-13:9780195144208ISBN:0195144201
Description: Very Good+ in Very Good+ jacket. VG+/VG+, no tears or chips to the DJ, interior clean and bright, binding tight, a wonderful copy throughout. read more
"I had high hopes for this book. It should have been this crazy comprehensive book, highlighting all of these aspects you'd never though of (like a Jared Diamond book). I learned a few things, but the book was short, unambitious, and not that enlightening"
"I hope Lewis is not "the West's greatest. . .interpreter of the Near East" since he apparently believes that what went wrong with the Arabs is essentially what you might call poor protoplasm. Not unbiased historical interpretation."
"This is a capsule history of Islamic civilization in the Middle East from about 1500 to the present, with an emphasis on how from the late 1600s it fell further and further behind the West in wealth, culture, and military might. Lewis puts the blame on a myopic and inward-turning culture that took hold in the region. When European universities established chairs of Arabic and Persian, no European language was studied in the Ottoman or Persian realms. Europeans travelled often to the East and wrote popular books about their travels, but Muslims traveled to Christian lands only when absolutely necessary, returned as soon as possible, and wrote little. Western literature was totally ignored. Western history was almost totally ignored. Western science and technology aroused little interest until military defeats made their need obvious. Even such everyday devices as clocks and printing presses were not widely adopted until the 19th century, long after they were widespread in the West.
Lewis dismisses the argument that Islam itself is incompatible with an advanced and curious culture. He stresses that Islamic civilization led the world in the Middle Ages and eagerly sought after and preserved the knowldge of antiquity. He also has little patience with those who blame the imperialists, the British, the Jews, or the Americans. He notes that the decline started long before they arrived, that in fact the decline made such interlopers possible, and that whenever such interlopers left things only got worse.
The book is full of wonderful tidbits. Did you know that when the British Empire was working to abolish the trade in black slaves from Africa to Ottoman lands, at the same time there was a trade in white slaves from the Caucasus that the British totally ignored?
Lewis does go too far at times. He says the Caliphate must have already been weak in the 13th century to be conquered by the Mongols, but the Mongols also conquered China, so I'd say they were pretty much irresistable. But on the whole, he seems to be fair-minded and to base his judgments on broad scholarly knowledge of the historical evidence."
"For a book that was reviewed by some as being "For newcomers to the subject" (of the dynamics between the Middle East and the West), I was disappointed at how inaccessible many of the chapters were, especially for such a captivating subject. That said, the book was mercifully short and a few of the chapters, usually about culture or science, were quite accessible and revealing."
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