The Middle East Institute is proud to host Eugene Rogan for a discussion about his recent book, The Arabs: A History (Basic Books, 2009), which traces Arab political history from the rise of the Ottoman Empire to current times, exploring significant modern themes of nationalism, imperialism, revolution, industrialization, Islamic fundamentalism, migration and women's rights over the past five centuries. Rogan, who regards Middle Eastern history from the viewpoint of Arabs, concentrates on the postwar collapse of the Ottoman Empire, as British and French domination ebbed, Israel was established, the greed for oil transformed the region and a new generation repudiated the era of nationalism and ineffectual leadership and looked to an earlier proud history of Islam.
Rogan’s book has been widely acclaimed by scholars such as Avi Shlaim to Rashid Khalidi, who called it “a masterful, thorough, and well-written survey of the entire sweep of modern Arab history.”