Historical Constants - A Review Of The Arabs By Thomas Kiernan
 

Thomas Kiernan's 1975 book, The Arabs, offers a contemporary assessment of Middle East politics and conflict from a specifically Arab point of view. The author's aim was to represent, not deliver propaganda. Alongside interviews with significant political and commercial figures, Thomas Kiernan presents chapters on the region's history. Together these sections offer a comprehensive and lucid account of about three millennia and, read separately, they seem to be as good a portrayal of the issues and their origins as a reader might find anywhere. The factual passages are perhaps superior to the journalism, and the author's speculation towards the end about superpower conflict, cold War style, might seem dated. But The Arabs is a superbly informative and, in places, moving book. The analysis is forty years old but the issues, surely, remain the same.

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