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Title: The Arabs

Subtitle: A History

Author: Eugene Rogan

Narrator: Derek Perkins

Format: Unabridged

Length: 27 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-19-16

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 311 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

In this definitive history of the modern Arab world, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan draws extensively on Arab sources and texts to place the Arab experience in its crucial historical context for the first time. Tracing five centuries of Arab history, Rogan reveals that there was an age when the Arabs set the rules for the rest of the world. Today, however, the Arab world's sense of subjection to external powers carries vast consequences for both the region and Westerners who attempt to control it.

Updated with a new epilogue, The Arabs is an invaluable, groundbreaking work of history.

Critic Reviews:

"Rogan eruditely furnishes Western readers with a background to current events." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Superb Book About the Arab World

This is the second book of Professor Rogan's that I have listened to (the first was the Fall of the Ottomans which I have previously reviewed). I purchased and listened to the book because I wanted to understand more about the Arab people and the source of the unrest that has plagued them and the Middle East since I can remember. I am very pleased with my purchase and although it is lengthy , I feel that I now a greater understanding the Arab people than I did before I listened to the book.

The book traces the history of the Arab world since the founding of Islam in the early seventh century AD. Despite the author's claims in his introduction, I feel that the book is divided into 5 phases: The growth of the Arab world (following founding of Islam; the Ottoman Empire and its governance through 1918; the imperialist (British and French mandate) phase of 1918 through the 1950's; the Arab Nationalist/Pharaoh Phase which lasted from the 1950's until the Iranian Revolution of 1979; and the Modern Era in which Islam has once again become the stirring force in the Arab world. Along the way we are introduced to historical figures- some of whom we have heard much of- such as Nasser, Sadat, King Hussein of Jordan, Khadafy, the Assad family in Syria and Sadam Hussein and Bath Party in Iraq; as well as some not so well known but very important personalities such as Muhammad Ali (not the fighter but the Albanian warrior who became a leading figure in the Ottoman empire and created the dynasty in Egypt), Urabi Pasha (whose rebellion led to the British occupation of Egypt) as well as well as Abd el-Krim who as leader of the Rif tribe in Morocco was able to defeat a modern Spanish army of 15,000 men after World War I. We are also introduced to the Islamic split between the Shira and Sunni Muslims which still pervades the Middle East to this day.

There were several takeaways from the book. The first was just how powerful the Islamic world was from its founding until its takeover by the Ottomans. I never also never realized that the Ottoman empire generally left the Arabs alone as long as its people paid its taxes to the Sultanate and how the change in this policy following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 resulted in the Ottoman's rescinding this "laissez faire" attitude eventually led to the Arab revolt which was fanned by the British during World War One. Another takeaway was the perfidy of the British to the Arab Nationalists who fought in the war against the Ottomans.