Told with empathy and great brilliance, esteemed historian Eugene Rogan follows the modern Arab experience from its roots in centuries of Ottoman domination to the present day struggles faced in the post-9/11 world. Highly acclaimed and exquisitely researched, it is both lively and highly informative for general readers new to the subject and scholars alike.

Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies, Columbia University"A masterful, thorough, and well-written survey of the entire sweep of modern Arab history. Full of lively vignettes but comprehensive at the same time, this book will be of great interest both to general readers and students of the Arab world."

Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World"Eugene Rogan writes about the Middle East with exceptional empathy, wisdom, and insight. His book is a landmark in scholarship on this complex and controversial region. Western scholars have written extensively about the Middle East but mostly from the outside looking in. The Arabs often feature in their accounts as mere driftwood on the sea of international affairs. Rogan, by contrast, has narrated the history of the region over the last five centuries from the inside looking out. He tells the history of the Arabs from their own perspective, using an impressive range of Arabic sources. It is a fascinating story and in Eugene Rogan it has found its most gifted chronicler."