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Title: What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response by Bernard Lewis ISBN: 0195144201 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: December, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.46
Rating: 5
Summary: Every Moslem Should Read This Book!
Comment: This slender volume provides a concise history of how the East and West have developed differently. While once far ahead of the West, Islam over time became complacent and lethargic, and slowly lost its lead over the emerging Occident. The change was gradual. The Scientific and Cultural developments of the Renissiance certainly marked the beginning of the West's ascendancy. The many bloody religious wars of the 16th-17th centuries gradually taught Western Civilization that in order to thrive it must seperate church from state. This is something that never occured in Islam, and this is one of the main points Mr.Lewis makes here. Islam has always been the source of all government and law in moslem states. This has become the main impediment for the Middle East's growth today. Lewis also points out that Islam's backward treatment of women is another major problem. Islam has gone seriously wrong in holding back the educational development of half its people. No wonder Arab children grow up largely ignorant today because their mothers are ignorant as well. The Moslem state sees no reason why women should be educated, and so the bitter cycle goes on generation after generation. Perhaps the most significant point made in this book is that the Middle East today must decide which path it will take. The choice is clear: Islamic extremism and retension of the past, which will continue to identify Islam with fanaticism and terrorism, or a progressive step forward like the modern state of Turkey has done. Until the Middle East learns to develope a secular outlook, and seperate church from state, the region will likely continue to spiral out of control. Already it is decades behind the rest of the world in nearly all areas. All moslems should read this book and look seriously at themselves and how they might begin to undertake change.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful synopsis of earlier works...
Comment: Bernard Lewis is an expert on his topic (Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritis at Princeton) and he has received much praise for his work. WHAT WENT WRONG is a distillation of material found in his earlier books, including A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST.
Historians frequently use one of several questions as organizing principles for their research -- what happened? what worked? what went wrong? Lewis book title is taken from the last question -- one that educated Middle Easterners are currently asking themselves. If you think the turmoil in the Middle East indicates something is wrong, then Lewis' book may interest you.
WHAT WENT WRONG is not perfect, but you will be able to identify the causes of the current problems in the Middle East if you read this book carefully. For example, on page 157 Lewis says there are those who suggest that "..the main culprit is Muslim sexism, and the relegation of women to an inferior position in society, thus depriving the Islamic world of the talents and energies of half its people, and entrusting the crucial early years of the upbringing of [children] to illiterate and downtrodden mothers." Boys raised by these mothers are arrogant and girls are submissive. These arrogant males and downtrodden females produce too many children which leads to extreme poverty.
Lewis says the problems in the Middle East were not caused by the European powers, nor Israel. The problems in the Middle East are the result of following Islamic practices that prohibit the adaptation of Western ways including the enfranchisement of women. The problems in the Middle East will never be solved until the people adapt democratic processes and modern technology (i.e. birth control!!!).
Rating: 5
Summary: concise account of arab decline
Comment: Bernard Lewis's "What Went Wrong?" gives readers a concise account of the decline of Arab society over the last five hundred years, primarily by looking at different areas of competition between East and West. Lewis begins with the Treaty of Carlowitz where, for the first time, the Turks were forced to come to terms with the Austrians. Throughout the ensuing decades the Ottomans gained and lost ground, but by the nineteenth century the various populations of the empire were in revolt. "The Ottoman state and armed forces were as effective as they had ever been...it was European invention and experiment that changed the balance of power." In commerce the Arabs also lagged behind Europe. As the Industrial Revolution swept through Europe, various countries of the Middle East attempted to catch up by building factories. These efforts failed and the factories soon became derelict. Science provides another example of Arab decline. The Medieval Arabs inherited a vast corpus of knowledge from the Greeks, Egyptians, and Babylonians and they added their own insights to that received wisdom; but by the end of the Middle Ages this came to an end. "In the Muslim world,"Lewis writes,"science was reduced to the veneration of approved knowledge." It is difficult to generalize about the causes of imperial decline but one reason is stagnation. When societies are no longer able to take advantage of new information, technology, or ideas they are doomed to be left behind. "What Went Wrong?" also benefits from its unflinching moral tone. Lewis makes clear that the Arabs have no one but themselves to blame for their current problems. Among more and more Middle Easterners the question: "Who did this to us?" is giving way to "What did we do wrong?" and subsequently "How do we put it right?" "In that question," Lewis concludes, and in the various answers that are being found, lie the best hopews for the future."
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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: August, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order by Robert Kagan ISBN: 1400040930 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Islam and the West by Bernard Lewis ISBN: 0195090616 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq by Kenneth M. Pollack ISBN: 0375509283 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 18 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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