Volume 9, Number 9 · November 23, 1967
Not So Grand Illusions
By Elie Kedourie
The Shaping of the Arabs: A Study in Ethnic Identity
by Joel Carmichael
Macmillan, 407 pp., $7.95
The Struggle for Syria: A Study of Post-War Arab Politics, 1945-1958
by Patrick Seale
Oxford, 366 pp., $7.20
The Arab Cold War, 1958-1967: A Study of Ideology in Politics (Second Edition)
by Malcolm Kerr
Oxford, 169 pp., $1.70
For quite some time now, the Arabs have been making a considerable noise in the world. Chanceries, academics, and newspapers are alike preoccupied with Arab grievances, demands, and aspirations. From small beginnings thirty or forty years ago, the Arab question has become an industry similar to that of electronics or space technology. But they have also become a bore. Fifty or a hundred years ago an author who felt drawn to Middle Eastern subjects had a tremendous variety from which to chose: Barbary corsairs, belly dancers, fanatical Mussulmans, sultans, pashas, moors, muezzins, harems. Now, in a decidedly poorer exchange, it has to be the Arabs.
Review, 3560 words
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