Suggest a good book to learn about history of the Middle East for me

[path12]

I think I need to get a better overview of the history of the region. Any ideas? Preferably as non-ideological as possible please. Thanks!

[PilotMan]

I am going to get mugged for this but........the Bible.:D



Someone had to do it.

[Schmidty]

I am going to get mugged for this but........the Bible.:D



Someone had to do it.

DANGIT!!!! I'm too slow.

[PurdueBrad]

Path, for contemporary history (particularly of the war), my wife recommends The Iraq War Reader which gives a well-rounded points of view of the events.

[Izulde]

There was a book on Islamic history I had for a course, that while very dry, was quite extensive in its information and would be a good starting resource, I think.

[cschex]

Goldschmidt's A Concise History of the Middle East is actually a pretty good survey text, especially if you are interested in the history behind the founding of Islam. He is more pro-Arabic when he gets to the 20th century, but its a good general history.

Tamin Ansary's Destiny Disturbed is a pretty fascinating read too, and probably the more accessible book. If you're wanting something more scholarly, I can look for some of my old research papers, but not sure exactly what you are looking for here.

[cartman]

It really depends on how far back you want to go. There are quite a few books about way back in the Mesopotamia and Hammurabi era. Then it goes kind of dark until the time of the foundation of Islam up to after the Crusades, then goes dark again until about 200 years ago and the British efforts at colonization and subsequent independence efforts and oil field dramas.

[Izulde]

Ahh, I found it.

Amazon.com: A History of Islamic Societies (9780521779333): Ira M. Lapidus: Books (http://www.amazon.com/History-Islamic-Societies-Ira-Lapidus/dp/0521779332/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296441844&sr=1-7)

As I said, it's quite dry and it's priced as you would expect a scholarly work to be.

Not -quite- exclusively the Middle East, but to understand the history of the Middle East, you must also have understanding of the history of Islam and Islamic societies.

[path12]

Thanks for the tips. The fact that it is textbooks that first come to mind is interesting in itself.

Good call about focusing the question down more. I guess I'm going to start around the founding of Islam and then through the colonial period to see if that sheds more light on more of how that has influenced the region today.