Description
By (author) Barr James
Short /annotation:
Between 1945 and 1970, America replaced Britain as the dominant power in the Middle East in an extraordinary role reversal. Lords of the Desert tells this story.
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”Beautifully written and deeply researched” The Observer
Upon victory in 1945, Britain still dominated the Middle East. But her motives for wanting to dominate this crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa were changing. Where ‘imperial security’ – control of the route to India – had once been paramount, now oil was an increasingly important factor. So, too, was prestige. Ironically, the very end of empire made control of the Middle East precious in itself: on it hung Britain’s claim to be a great power.
Unable to withstand Arab and Jewish nationalism, within a generation the British were gone. But that is not the full story. What ultimately sped Britain on her way was the uncompromising attitude of the United States, which was determined to displace the British in the Middle East.
Using newly declassified records and long-forgotten memoirs, including the diaries of a key British spy, James Barr tears up the conventional interpretation of this era in the Middle East, vividly portraying the tensions between London and Washington, and shedding an uncompromising light on the murkier activities of a generation of American and British diehards in the region, from the battle of El Alamein in 1942 to Britain’s abandonment of Aden in 1967.
Reminding us that the Middle East has always served as the arena for great power conflict, this is the tale of an internecine struggle in which Britain would discover that her most formidable rival was the ally she had assumed would be her closest friend.
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”Bustles impressively with detail and anecdote” Sunday Times
‘Consistently fascinating’ The Spectator
”Barr draws on a rich and varied trove of sources to knit a sequence of dramatic episodes into an elegant whole. Great events march through these pages” Wall Street Journal
Review quote:
”A
masterful account of Anglo-American rivalries that shaped the modern Middle East after WWII—
brilliant storytelling with a rich cast of characters, Lords of the Desert is
irresistible
reading.”
Review quote:
”With its oil and its waterways, the Middle East was and remains a first step for any rising world power, and also the final trap for empires on the decline. In this
lively page-turner, Barr unearths the obscure history of our disastrous engagement with the Middle East today—and of our own imperial decline.”
Review quote:
”Many of the events in this book will be familiar, but instead of presenting them from the more usual perspectives of the Cold war confrontation between the US and Russia, or Imperial withdrawal, James Barr considers them instead from the angle of US-British rivalry. This is refreshing, but it is perhaps also closer to the angle from which many contemporaries would have considered the Suez canal crisis of 1956 or the coup that removed Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953, for example. This book is therefore not just an
excellent,
lively account of salient events in this period in the history of the Middle East; it also opens up some new ways to think about them.”
Review quote:
”In this
compelling new book, James Barr recalls a now forgotten story of British-American competition for power in the Middle East during and after their victory in the Second World War. This is
essential, gripping history with major relevance for those who wish to understand that tortured region today.”
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