The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of distinction between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
-- Sir William Francis Butler
Named Best Book of the Year by the Financial Times, the Economist and the Atlantic
In this definitive history of the modern Arab world, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan draws extensively on five centuries of Arab sources to place the Arab experience in its crucial historical context. In this updated and expanded edition, Rogan untangles the latest geopolitical developments of the region to offer a groundbreaking and comprehensive account of the Middle East. The Arabs is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the modern Arab world.
"Deeply erudite and distinctly humane." --Atlantic
"An outstanding, gripping and exuberant narrative . . . that explains much of what we need to know about the world today." --Simon Sebag Montefiore, Financial Times