Nicolas Pelham: 2 books

When the Ottoman Empire fell apart, colonial powers drew straight lines on the map to create a new region - the Middle East - made up of new countries filled with multiple religious sects and ethnicities. Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, for example, all contained a kaleidoscope of Sunnis, Kurds, Shias, Circassians,...

**The definitive history of the Middle East, thoroughly revised and updated "The best overall survey of the politics, regional rivalries and economics of the contemporary Arab World." -The Washington Post** One of the most crucial, volatile, and complex regions of the modern world, the...