(Part 2) Best historical middle east biographies according to redditors
We found 399 Reddit comments discussing the best historical middle east biographies. We ranked the 130 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
> We propped up Osama Bin Laden up until he got smart and turned on us.
Please read a book about this, I beseech you. Nothing is worse than internet pop history/international relations. I'd suggest these:
https://www.amazon.com/Bin-Ladens-Arabian-American-Century/dp/0143114816
https://www.amazon.com/Osama-bin-Laden-Know-History/dp/0743278917/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+bin+laden+i+know&qid=1556584133&s=books&sr=1-1-catcorr
https://www.amazon.com/Looming-Tower-Al-Qaeda-Road-11/dp/1400030846
Bin Laden wasn't supported by the US, not because the US is a good guy (it's not, no country is despite redditors wishing it wasn't so), but because they just didn't care about him and he was already rich. There were a few hundred Afghan Arabs as opposed to tens of thousands of mujahideen. The CIA supported the latter, they just didn't give a shit about the former.
No Way Out does a great job detailing what a shitshow that Shok Valley op was.
This might be a cultural thing where if you killed someone it would be forgiven if you paid their family blood money, I read about this in Marsh Arabs which details a culture and way of life that went virtually unchanged for 5000 years.
All right. Just went through my library and the following stood out to me:
Desert Solitaire (1968) by Edward Abbey: One of the best American voices for conservation spent some seasons as a park ranger in the desert southwest. Here are some brilliant, funny, and soundly critical musings inspired by his time there.
A Continuous Harmony (1972) & The Unsettling of America (1977) by Wendell Berry: In my opinion, Wendell Berry is the best cultural critic we've ever had. He's 86 now and still a powerful voice of reason in a chaotic society. Dismissed mistakenly by fools as someone who just wants to go back to the old days, he offers much-needed critiques on our decomposing relationship to the land and what it's been doing to our culture.
Night Comes to the Cumberlands (1962) by Harry M. Caudill: This Kentucky native saw what the predatory and morally bankrupt coal industry had done to the people and land (and the relationship between the two) in Appalachia and outlined how it all happened in powerful inarguable detail. This book serves as a stern warning about what chaos and destruction industries can bring forth when profit is their only concern. Anyone wondering why Appalachia is full of depressed drug addicts can find the roots of those issues in this book, which inspired The War on Poverty.
The Big Sky (1947) by A.B. Guthrie Jr. : A classic novel about a young kid who runs away to join the fur trade in the frontier days. It tells a very believable story, rather than chasing the overblown myths of the West like most novels dealing with that subject.
Shantyboat (1977) & Payne Hollow by Harlan Hubbard: He and his wife Anna built a truly rewarding and pleasant life together almost entirely independent of modern industrial society in the 1940s and 50s, first floating down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers on a shantyboat they built, living from temporary gardens and trading with people they met along the river, and then settling into Payne Hollow where they lived a realer-than-Thoreau existence together for decades. True love, and true meaningful living.
Of Wolves and Men (1978) by Barry Lopez: Rogan seems to think he's some kind of authority on wolves and I cringe every time I hear him start talking about them. It doesn't begin and end with "These are savage fucking predators that need to be controlled!" He seriously needs to read this book, which is a beautifully-written and exhaustive look at the history of the relationship between human and wolves. Like most interesting things, it is a complex issue.
My Life With The Eskimo (1909?) by Vilhjalmur Stefansson: The accounts of an ethnologist traveling through the arctic before much contact had been made between Europeans and Natives. Incredible stories of survival and the inevitable interesting situations that occur when two vastly different cultures meet.
The Marsh Arabs (1964) & Arabian Sands (1959) by Wilfred Thesiger: This dude went deep. Deep into the marshes of Southern Iraq and deep into the Empty Quarter of Arabia. Both books are amazing accounts of voyages through incredible parts of the world whose geography and people have since been changed forever.
The Mountain People (1972) by Colin M. Turnbull: This anthropologist lived with the Ik in Uganda as they went through a complete cultural disintegration brought on by starvation during a drought. Reading this, one sees how quickly complete tragic anarchy takes hold when basic resources are in desperate need. Humanity went out the window.
Let me know if you ever read any of these, and how you like them. I would bet they provide anyone with good food for thought and discussion.
Definitely Generation Kill, to look into the dynamics of modern war. It's a seriously good, impartial, truthful and entertaining account of the first stages of the second Iraq war seen from the eyes of a battalion of first recon marines. Very well written, too.
War Nerd. Gary Brecher is a tongue-in-cheek military amateur analyst. His views on modern and past warfare are very lucid, albeit controversial and leftfield. His writing style is pretty original, kinda like the Hunter Thompson of war pundits. A backlog of his articles is also available online.
Making A Killing. It's the first person account of a British private security contractor in Iraq. I was expecting the worst when I read it, but it's actually very well written, informative and entertaining. Some of the lingo and drills described in the book actually helped me understand a lot of these videos.
Das Boot is my favourite war book, and it's an embedded reporter's account of a year in a german U-boat during the second world war.
What else do you need? Do you want testimony from soldiers about these practices? We've got that too: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Harsh-Logic-Testimonies-Territories/dp/0805095373
What are you holding on to?
This is an excellent book if you're interested in learning more about the Bin Ladens.
It all depends on what kind of angle you're looking for.
Here is by no means an exhaustive list. I must say I haven't read all of these but have come across them in research and from previous recommendations on here, but here goes:
Background/Social & Historical contexts/Other relevant stuff
Patrick Seale - Assad (rather old, good for history)
Tarek Osman - Islamism (2016, broad coverage of Islamism in theory and practice, good context)
John Robertson - Iraq (2016)
John McHugo - Syria (2015)
Sami Moubayed - Syria & The USA (2013)
Sami Moubayed - Damascus Between Democracy and Dictatorship (2000, very good for Syrian history and experience with democracy)
Perceived pro-original opposition bias
Diana Darke - My House in Damascus (new version came out 2015)
Michael Weiss & Hassan Hassan - ISIS (2015)
Charles Lister - The Syrian Jihad (2016)
Perceived pro-government bias
Patrick Cockburn - Rise of the Islamic State (2015, this might not be as detailed as you'd want it to be)
Kurds
Michael Knapp, Ercan Ayboga & Anja Flach - Revolution Rojava (2016, the detail in this is beyond insane)
There was a book by Rorke Denver, link on amazon, I'm not qualified to tell how close to the truth it might be, but he is/was a SEAL officer, so there's that.
Arabian Sands, by Wilfred Thesiger. As far as I know, he's the last of the British Gentleman Explorers. It's about the time he spent traveling with and living among the Saudi Arabian Bedouin (or Bedu). I enjoyed it very much.
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
Hitler's buddy, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
https://www.amazon.com/Icon-Evil-Hitlers-Mufti-Radical/dp/1400066530
Start with The Prize. If you want to understand the economics of oil you need to understand the history of the business, the player's, the Middle East (especially Saudi Arabia) and the Caspian.
These are some great books to help you understand the industry better:
The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich
The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea
Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power
The Seven Sisters: The great oil companies & the world they shaped
The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
The Handbook of Global Energy Policy
Here is one:
An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan.
And Shirin Ebadi's memoir is going to press:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400064708/
[This is one of the coolest things on my WL!] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00913OA2G/ref=aw_ls__5?colid=Q1SMEPUA12S4&coliid=I2TM3Q81YNG0WN)
Iftach Spector, a retired Israeli Brigadier General, was one of the pilots involved in Operation Opera, Israel's 1981 bombing of Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor. He discusses Operation Opera in his memoirs Loud and Clear.
(He was also one of the pilots involved in the attack on the USS Liberty during the Six Day War. He also discusses that in the book.)
I found this list. Warning, it's a PDF.
Shirin Ebadi's Iran Awakening is amazing. She's a nobel peace prize winner.
sure.
(I'm used to putting together thoughtful arguments on this and getting downvotes, but I'm not thin skinned, so here goes)--(I will also provide links, most of them to places like wikipedia, a place that reddit normally treats as an authority, OR respectable sources)--(no one will care.):
(EDIT: just noticed that this was TrueReddit, I can expect better treatment here, I suppose)
There are four ways in which a governmental agency on planet earth can lose its sovereignty according to international law.
Saddam H repeatedly broke all four.
according to international law, he was not a legitimate government and intervening in the power struggle to help push Iraq into a post-Saddam era is not (again, according to international law) an imperialist policy.
Let's look at each of these four, and explore why they exist and why they are so very important (I'll provide evidence that SH broke each, although no serious person on any side of this debate questions these facts):
> 1st: attempting or enacting genocide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Anfal_Campaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack
SH had a "minister" whose title job was to accomplish the complete extermination of the largest and oldest people-group on the planet not to have a nation-state of their own.
The only reason why this minister was unsuccessful was because EVERY DAY from some point in 1991 to the final resolution of this SH issue the US enforced a "no-fly" zone, and were shot at by SH every single day.
Now, you will have to say that you think that the Kurds should have been wiped out in the name of keeping US imperialism at bay OR that the US is allowed to protect these people at risk BUT never can say that it is a legitimate interest of theirs to simply remove the guy that orders the shooters against them.
How can it be an unprovoked act of aggression on the US's part to deal with a problem that was growing and wasn't going to go away?
I wonder if the people who don't want US to intervene in the affairs of the Iraqis would have wanted to see the US allow the Kurds to be wiped out in this fashion? Some of their comments make me feel like they might have.
> 2nd: Harboring Terrorists
this
> 3rd: repeated aggression to neighboring states.
Iran
At his trial in December 2006, Saddam Hussein said he would take responsibility "with honour" for any attacks on Iran using conventional or chemical weapons during the 1980–1988 war but he took issue with charges he ordered attacks on Iraqis. source
Kuwait.
> 4th: Messing around with the non-proliferation treaty.
This doesn't mean just making weapons of mass destruction, it means being dishonest with lawful inspectors, intervening in the lawful work of inspectors, and other items.
SH lied to inspectors, buried evidence (literally had evidence buried to hide it), was found trying to develop WMD and found closer to succeeding on this front when we "invaded" his country to oppose his annexation of a legitimate neighbor of his (Kuwait), he was left in power under the express written understanding that he would submit to even stricter future inspection requirements (among other things), making his violations of these rules even more significant.
It is now a matter of public record that the SH Iraqi government built a nuclear reactor for the sole purpose of acquiring a stockpile of weapons grade plutonium.
Saddam Hussein was a racist, violent, criminal, psychopathic, anti-environmental, threat to the free world and the existence of innocent people groups. And yet, because Bush was a bit of a dick, he is defended by redditors. Why?
WMD + SH
Two words that Michael Moore has made sure you don't believe can be uttered in the same breath.
BUT:
this book was written by SH's one time chief physicist, Mahdi Obeidi. mentions:
> buried nuclear centrifuge...attempt to purchase missiles from North Korea
> > source
Environmental issues
If GWB purposefully caused the single greatest environmental disaster, when he had nothing to gain for it, but simply to spite others, I don't believe that most redditors would wait for the next election cycle to remove him, they would demand his resignation immediately. Maybe the Supreme Court could help, but ultimately: Constitution be damned, this guy has to go, he is literally destroying the planet, to hell with him.
Well, SH did do exactly that. the flames of the oil fields were visible from space. he didn't help himself at all by doing this, but simply did it to spite the forces that were fighting against him, for winning.
So:
all of this information means that, if you are against the war (and presumably not a total pacifist) you have to answer this question:
When is it justifiably in the interests of the greatest superpowers, and the free world to intervene militarily on the world stage. Apparently
Shall I go on?
Some good books to read
> and you say:
> > can you provide some context, as others arguing against his points have provided some compelling posts?
> sure
I can only recommend English sources, I'm sure there are Turkish translations:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Osmans-Dream-Ottoman-Empire-1300-1923/dp/0719561124/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ottoman-Centuries-Rise-Turkish-Empire/dp/0688080936/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Constantinople-City-Worlds-Desire-1453-1924-ebook/dp/B005OVUIGQ/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ataturk-Rebirth-Nation-Patrick-Kinross/dp/1842125990
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ataturk-Andrew-Mango/dp/0719565928
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Turks-Today-Turkey-After-Ataturk-ebook/dp/0719565952/
The Bookseller of Kahbul by Anse Seierstad
I just finished this book for a book club. Its a hard read, but eye opening. This book gives a glimpse into Afghan life by focusing on individuals in a family. It shows how even those you would think have the opportunity for success, are even denied basic education.If you live a first world life, like I do in middle America, it is very eye opening and makes you feel so grateful for the life you live. I did have to stop reading before bed due to the unhappy content, but I think this is an important read to understand the culture of an corruption of this country. It does read like a novel, which sometimes makes the individual events seem like random facts being tossed around, but it does come full circle in the end. It does focus a lot on women's rights,or lack of, so it may not be for everyone. But I enjoyed it :) Love and light!
https://www.amazon.com/Bookseller-Kabul-Asne-Seierstad/dp/0316734500/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1488313620&sr=1-1&keywords=the+bookseller+of+kabul&refinements=p_n_feature_browse-bin:2656020011
There was an excellent book about this mission that includes his story.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Way-Out-Mountains-Afghanistan/dp/0425253406/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1419874731&sr=8-7&keywords=No+way+out
Highly recommend it.
One should read the Mango or Kinross biographies but I would supplement either of those with this - Ataturk: An Intellectual Biography by Hanioglu
Not The Israel My Parents Promised Me
allcapsarelocked: ^^original ^^link
This is a good book to get.
Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010 [Hardcover]
http://www.amazon.com/Our-Harsh-Logic-Testimonies-Territories/dp/0805095373/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1368143378&sr=8-6&keywords=breaking+the+silence
Go on YouTube and search Israeli Soldiers breaking the silence.
I would really, strongly recommend Kinross's biography of Kemal Ataturk. He was the Julius Caesar and the George Washington of modern Turkey rolled into one. And the book acts as a really useful modern history of one of the most powerful countries in the middle east, as well.
This is actually one of the reasons why i like him, this book is another reason http://www.amazon.com/Our-Last-Best-Chance-Pursuit/dp/0670021717 , am Palestinian living in Jordan and I think he is the best thing that happened to Jordan.
There are some other aspects to the story though: http://www.amazon.com/Bomb-My-Garden-Secrets-Mastermind/dp/0471679658
MAKIN A KILLING
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Killing-Explosive-Story-Hired/dp/0753512343
>if Assad wasn't a corrupt as he is - there wouldn't be enough pissed of Syrians to attempt to overthrow him in the first place.
I really suggest you to read "My house in Damascus" by Diana Darke, it was suggested to me by a good friend and it goes to great lengths about how corrupt Syrian society in general is, not specifically the government though that is what the book gravitates around.
>So Assad's corruption has the accumulated of evil of it all
I'll definitely agree that the government (isolating Assad is only a part of the problem) is guilty, but corruption really is only a small problem in comparison.
Great, as I look at my bookshelf I have:
Survivor
Fight Club
and
Lullaby.
I will often get on Amazon and just order several books to get the free shipping. Based on other stuff I have read and like Chuck was recommended and I have heard interesting things about Fight Club so I figured, "why not."
Oh well, I guess that I will try Fight Club next.
I'm reading "The Bookseller of Kabul" right now and it is pretty interesting. (Non-fiction)
Hammer From Above:Marine Air Combat Over Iraq - Jay Stout
USMC Hornets, Harriers and Cobras during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Really nice details of CAS missions, F/A-18D doing FAC for F/A-18Cs, Harriers landing on an LHD during a sandstorm, Cobras landing on a Highway to get fire directions from Marines on the ground and plenty of other great stories!
Loud and Clear: Memoir of an Israeli Fighter Pilot - Iftach Spector
Memoir of an Israeli pilot from the 1960s to 2000s flying Mirage IIIs, Phantoms and F-16s, he took part in the infamous Operation Opera bombing of the Iraqi nuclear plant. A really excellent book, head and shoulders above most military aviation memoirs writing wise.
I'll add others when I can look at my shelves!
https://www.amazon.com/Brigade-Epic-Story-Vengeance-Salvation/dp/006093283X
frankly after much looking i cant find an academic source, this below is the best i could find
http://www.amazon.com/Icon-Evil-Hitlers-Mufti-Radical/dp/1400066530
also relevant
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1987-004-09A,_Amin_al_Husseini_und_Adolf_Hitler.jpg
Al-husseini was always pictured with that hat on his head and in b/w so its hard to tell ,maybe there are better resources in arabic
>Ironically this is the most arrogant thing you've said so far. I mean, fuck, how far up your ass is your own head?
Ooooh the evil guy that is arrogant.
>Eh, poorly at best. Based on a sample size of maybe a few hundred you've applied your label to 300 million people. Well done, that's truly the most accurate science.
Those 300 millions people are composed of 150 millions who refuse evolution on dumb religious ideology, which is already quite a lot. We also see plenty of police brutality from police bred from these 300 millions, policemen who have no trouble in going John Wayne on you for manifesting dissent. We also see a country whose government performed more than 1000 nuclear tests or had no problem in messing up with energetic policies of foreign countries, denying or opposing rational attempts to solve important worldwide issues. I also invite you to read King Abdullah's opinion about the Bush policy in middle east. And yes, you have a widely supported candidate such as Rick Santorum, basically a psychopath who would be in a mental hospital in Europe. And let's go on to the common people, with their affection to the supabooooowl, childish mascots (at least in Europe there's some kind of history behind it, something you clearly are lacking) or 300 hundred and more types of hamburger, all to become the most obese country in the world, with the worst GINI index in the civilized world, nobody dare to touch my right to go around with a gun to defend myself from the poors, my right to deny health insurance to people, to work like a robot with no vacation, to use the imperial system, or with a huge SUV with the balls attached to the hook and stickers everywhere praising Jesus. Public transport is for losers and bla..african americans. And if you don't agree with me, you are a faggot communist atheist arrogant asshole, and we will bring you democracy, if we can find your country on the map.
This is the public image your country gives abroad. A cult of the excess, with-us-or-against-us, no appreciation and knowledge of the outside world, no wisdom of the past or appreciation of cultural advancement, a highly stressful and unequal society that gives you back in return just a bunch of soon to be worthless paper money.
Deal with it.
>Except, for some reason ,those Europeans who have posted in this very thread saying the exact opposite of what you're saying based on their own personal interactions with Americans. Crazy how that works.
Sampling. My sampling is different from their sampling. Again, deal with it.
> How have you not realized by now that your books, news, media, stories, and brief interactions at work with Americans can only paint a broad picture? GO OUTSIDE, SEE THE WORLD FOR YOURSELF.
I see the world myself, thank you very much. Yet, we europeans never really felt the need to make a movie called "idiocracy".
> I've traveled the world and know more about it than you can ever hope to learn from your books.
And how much do you know about history, geography, philosophy ?
> You can read about the cherry blossoms in Washington DC or skyscrapers of New York, but can never understand them until you see for yoruself.
Am I supposed to be fascinated by a bunch of skyscrapers ?
>Because some Americans fit into that category, my point remains, there are 300 motherfucking million people here. Do you even know what the word generalization means?
Yes. And again, I am aware you know nothing about basic concepts of statistics.
>I feel bad for you, I really do. You believe the world can be learned about in books. Put the book down and go outside, see the world and form your own opinions.
And what makes you think I didn't do it? Do you talk like you know me? I'm just a nickname. From what you know, I may even live in your city, or have traveled countless countries. What if I did, and I actually lived in the US for an extended period of time, and I still had this opinion? what would you say ?
>Don't waste your time responding with another giant block of text, I won't read it. Not because I'm anti-intellectual or trying to get the last word, but because you've attempted to make your point and so have I, we won't see eye to eye so what's the point?
The point is that the US citizens who don't match my representation of US citizens won't be able to do anything to save the US from those who do match it.
I can't really help jgm0228, but just learning about the Book List you linked I think one good addition to the Holocaust section would be Isaac's Army about the Jewish presence in Poland in the lead up to and during WW2.
Apologies if mistaken and you are not the one managing the list. Would appreciate either the suggestion being passed along or the name of someone who does.
Edit: Just remembered The Brigade and The Avengers. The Bielski Bros. book is good too but the movie covered a good chunk of the content.
Harvey Pekar agrees with you.