MER Article Hourani, History of the Arab Peoples Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (Faber and Faber, 1991). This is a rich and profoundly satisfying book, the high-water mark of Albert Hourani’s long and influential career as a writer and teacher. Hourani’s gifts as a teacher, and the care and affection he has devoted to his students, Peter Sluglett • 5 min read
MER Article Khalil, Republic of Fear Samir al-Khalil, Republic of Fear: Saddam’s Iraq (California Press, 1989). This book, first published a year ago at a time when -- with a few honorable exceptions -- most criticism of Iraq and its president was strangely muted, is a sophisticated and brilliantly savage denunciation of Arab populist Peter Sluglett • 5 min read
MER Article Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East Wm. Roger Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, The United States and Post-War Imperialism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984). This rich and highly informative book charts the history of the post-war British Labor government’s policies in the Middle East. It is imm Peter Sluglett • 5 min read
El-Azhary, The Iran-Iraq War M. S. el-Azhary, ed., The Iran-Iraq War (London and New York: Croom Helm and St. Martin’s Press, 1984). This volume comprises papers presented at a conference organized by the Universities of Exeter and Basra, at Exeter in July 1982, together with an introduction and conclusion written in the sprin Peter Sluglett • 3 min read
Not Quite Armageddon Ostensibly, the war between Iraq and Iran is about boundaries, about freeing the Shatt al-‘Arab from Persian occupation, about restoring the two Tumb islands and Abu Musa in the Gulf to the Arab nation, and -- admittedly always a more distant prospect -- liberating Khuzistan (“Arabistan”) from the a Marion Farouk-Sluglett, Peter Sluglett, Joe Stork • 29 min read
