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Title: What Went Wrong? : The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis ISBN: 0-06-051605-4 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.44 (213 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Fails to answer its own question
Comment: Don't buy this book if you're trying to understand current Middle Eastern politics or their recent blowback onto American soil. As the author notes in his preface, this book was already in page proofs when the Twin Towers fell down. So its status as a recent New York Times Bestseller says more about our turning to literature as a way of comprehending September 11 than it does about the author's intentions or the book's actual content. Lewis can't be blamed for that. But even so, he fails to address what the jacket blurb promises. It claims the book explores the intersection of Western and Middle Eastern cultures and, in particular, 'examines the anguished reaction of the Islamic world as it tried to understand why things had changed, and provides a fascinating portrait of culture in turmoil.' I thought I was going to get a short-course history of Muslim culture and politics and an unflinching analysis of how Islam engaged with Western imperialism. But Lewis provides nothing of the sort. Patched together from his public lectures and previously published articles, Lewis conducts a chatty, schematic and rather disjointed tour through Muslim social history in a tone you'd expect from a secondary school text or, in places, an inflight magazine. And he stops well short of the period that matters the most: the last fifty years when the creation of Israel, the struggle for oil, and the West's covert efforts to thwart regional communist insurgency combined to create the ugly and dangerous spectacle the Middle East is today. Only in the final ten pages does Lewis even address the issue of the book's title. But he doesn't actually explain what went wrong - he merely gives a dismissive precis of some possible answers and concludes (rather disingenuously, I think), that the future of the Middle East is in its own hands. That it most certainly isn't is more than half the problem: if only we could leave it alone! This book is useful if you want a brief introduction to the history and culture of the Ottoman Empire. But if you want to understand the political, ideological and economic forces which shaped the Middle East in the twentieth century, and inspired militant Islamists to violence, look elsewhere.
Rating: 5
Summary: Nothing Wrong With This Book
Comment: I enjoyed "What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East," by Bernard Lewis, quite a lot. Lewis is probably the premier Western scholar of the Middle East and Islam, and this book is one of his most recent efforts. Although one might be tempted to pigeon-hole this effort as an author capitalizing on Sept 11, in reality this book was in publication at that time, having been inspired by an earlier lecture series, I think.
"What Went Wrong" contrasts Islam and Christendom since the rise of Islam. It is important to remember that while in the West we tend to view Islamic countries as trailing the West in major "measures" of civilization, this was not always true. When European (Christian) countries were languishing in the dark ages, Islamic scientists and physicians were among the most advanced on the globe. Poetry, literature, music, economics, and military prowess: Muslim countries and peoples exceeded all others in these areas. Then it all changed. Slowly at first, then more quickly. Soon, the West was the seat of learning and science, and the hegemony was reversed.
In this book, Lewis seeks to try to explain why this happened. In doing so, he explores Christian and Islamic attributes of many aspects of the two kinds of societies. Some other reviewers felt like this book was too simplistic or too vague. I think they're looking too hard at the topic. Lewis seems to be saying simply this: when Islam came to power in Arabia, long before the end of the first Millenium AD, it was the most progressive social movement around. It enabled basic women's rights (if little more than basic ones), and simple but powerful social constructs that catapulted Arab and the Middle Eastern societies into the forefront of social thought, at least for that time. But it was not flexible or adaptable.
As a result, when Christendom experienced a Renaissance, Islamic society was unable to match those advances; in fact, uninterested in matching them. Lewis presents many examples of this dichotomy: units of measure, use of technology and medicine, tolerance for secular government, and some deceptively simple Western measures of "civilization," such as art and music. Taken as a whole, these points seem to support his argument that Islamic society didn't continue to advance as quickly because it wasn't conceived with that advancement in mind. This book is a fascinating look at this basic contrast, and I found it a provocative and worthwhile read. I would recommend it to anyone: no reader need fear the language or content will be too difficult. I give it five stars for its insight and the well-supported arguments.
Rating: 3
Summary: Lewis and Limitations
Comment: The book was informative about the historical development of Islamic civilizations. However, it seems Lewis fails to answer his own question. He provides excellent analyses in certain parts of the book, although one could argue that he makes assumptions in some parts, too. (For instance, he argues that Ottomans implemented clergy in Islam because they learned this from Byzantium). He indicates that the Ottoman Empire tried to implement reforms, but that they were not successful enough. When at the end of the book he proposes solutions for Middle Eastern countries and Islamic regimes, he surprisingly excludes Turkey. While not an Islamic regime, Turkey is 98% Muslim, earning it the characterization of Muslim and secular. What he suggests as a solution -that countries of the region enact "freedom of the economy from corrupt mismanagement, freedom of women from male oppression, freedom of citizens from tyranny (Pp.159) -- are in actuality already being enacted in Turkey. It is nonetheless evident that most scholars do not recognize Turkey's developmental track in this regard. Moreover, some problems Lewis mentioned are not just Muslim countries' problems. Similar problems can arguably be found in any Christian third world country. What went wrong? is an appropriate question, but it needs to be answered to the degree the situation requires. Lewis is an accomplished historian; it appears, however, that he wrote this book in a rush.
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Title: The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis ISBN: 0679642811 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Middle East by Bernard Lewis ISBN: 0684832801 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 07 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Islam and the West by Bernard Lewis ISBN: 0195090616 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER by Samuel P. Huntington ISBN: 0684844419 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 28 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Arabs in History by Bernard Lewis ISBN: 0192803107 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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