The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years. by Lewis, Bernard - 1995

New York: Scribner, 1995. First edition of this work by the award-winning writer. Octavo original half cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For Leslie, old friend, good friend- with affectionate greetings Bernard Lewis 23-5-96." Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Calvin Chu. For more than 50 years, Lewis has strived mightily and successfully to explain the cultures and histories of Middle Eastern peoples to Western readers. The task of writing a political history of the region has already been fulfilled by him and by many others. In his latest work, Lewis has chosen to accentuate the social, economic, and cultural changes that have occurred over 20 centuries. He ranges from seemingly trivial concerns (changes in dress and manners in an Arab coffeehouse) to earth-shaking events (the Mongol conquest of Mesopotamia) in painting a rich, varied, and fascinating portrait of a region that is steeped in traditionalism while often forced by geography and politics to accept change. As always, Lewis is eloquent, incisive, and displays an intuitive grasp of the social dynamics of the culture he describes. Both scholars and general readers with an interest in the Middle East will find this work a delight" (Jay Freeman).