The first Schmierer-recommended book on Iraq I picked up was The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, by The New Yorker writer George Packer. The book starts of with a great job of explaining the political history of the neoconservatives (neocons) prior to the Iraq War and their involvement in the rationale behind the war, then […]
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The retired military friend who recommended Ghost Wars also suggested Iraq: Policy and Perceptions by Richard J. Schmierer as a good primer on Iraq. The author is a member of the Senior Foreign Service with extensive experience in public diplomacy in the Middle East. The book offered a wide survey of the issues related to […] On the way to and from Allentown, PA in early March, Ramona and I listened to the unabridged recording of The Reluctant Fundamentalist. I was glad we listened to it, because I enjoyed hearing the frustration in the narrator’s voice. The title is a play on words, or at least a play on expectations. This […] After Fromkin and before starting my Spanish studies in early December, I had a chance to read the first half of Bernard Lewis’ The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years. I was trying to wrap up my whirlwind review of the Middle East, but didn’t quite finish. This volume, like the […] Right after Orientalism, I read David Fromkins’ A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East . Fascinating. This detailed work covers everything leading up to, through and right after the First World War, related to the Middle East. Fromkin is a very engaging […] |
