MARTIN SICKER, The Middle East in the Twentieth Century (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001). Pp. 299. $69.95 cloth.

Extract

This handsomely bound, well-written volume (remarkably devoid even of typographical errors) on the period from 1914 to the end of the century continues a series of works by Martin Sicker that deal with the Middle East from early antiquity on. In fact, the volume deals almost exclusively with international politics—what the author calls the area's “geopolitical history” (p. 1)—and is far from providing comprehensive coverage of that. Aside from the Conclusion and Introduction, the book consists of twenty short chapters (some of which are extremely sketchy considering the nature of the subjects being dealt with) in chronological order, starting with “Britain and the Arabs, 1914–20” (some other aspects of this period were covered in the preceding volume) and ending with “Conflict in the Persian Gulf Region, 1973–99.” The bulk of the book deals with the Arab–Zionist/Israeli conflict and matters pertaining to Egypt and Arab Asia, although there are chapters on Iran, on oil in the period leading up to 1947, and even on Transcaucasia in 1917–21.