The Arabs: Journey Beyond The Mirage

Zusatztext “Intelligent and incisive . . . Mr. Lamb has the first-rate reporter’s tools! and he uses them to relate! with compelling detail! who the Arabs are.” — The New York Times Book Review “Perhaps the best effort to examine the Middle East using a mixture of anecdote! description! and analysis to bring the region to life.” — Los Angeles Times “A thoughtful closeup study of the Arab peoples! based on firsthand observation and on knowledge of their history. . . . An excellent piece of writing and persuasion.” — The New Yorker “Neither pretentious nor polemical . . . A valuable contribution toward knocking down stereotypes.” — The Boston Globe Informationen zum Autor David Lamb Klappentext The Arabs is widely considered one of the essential books for understanding the Middle East and the peoples who live there. David Lamb! who spent years as a correspondent in Cairo! explores the Arabs' religious! political! and cultural views! noting the differences and key similarities between the many segments of the Arab world. He explains Arab attitudes and actions toward the West! including the growth of terrorism! and situates current events in a larger historical backdrop that goes back more than a thousand years. Now thoroughly revised and updated! The Arabs takes the story up to 2001. Lamb analyzes the developments that led to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon! and helps the reader to understand how things got to that point. A veteran journalist! Lamb combines his extensive experience in covering international politics with his deeply informed insider's knowledge to provide an intimate portrait of the Arab world today. Leseprobe One A Collision of Cultures Gamal Rasmi slumped into his chair and glanced about the dance floor, his fingers tapping a nervous beat on the tabletop. The Playboy Disco was nearly full, but he recognized not a soul. "I used to know everyone here, absolutely everyone," he said with a sigh, signaling the waiter for a German beer. The waiter didn't see him and hurried by to fill another order. The music grew louder. Gamal's fingers moved faster. "This getting married in Cairo, it may be a very stupid thing I am about to do," he said. "I may never be able to dance again." Until recently Gamal had come to the Playboy almost every evening to dance and drink a beer or two, acting out his fantasy that he was John Travolta in the movie Saturday Night Fever . Then trauma entered his life: he got engaged. His fiancée, Manal, was a plump, silent woman who spent her time watching television and would not get into Gamal's car until he had plugged his portable TV into the cigarette lighter on the dashboard. Having only recently become conspicuously pious, Manal did not dance and did not condone the consumption of anything stronger than fruit juice. She also had started veiling--covering her hair and shoulders, but not her face, with a scarf--thus tacitly announcing that she had made her peace with God and would display her religion as a badge, which said, Look! This is who I am! This did not greatly please Gamal, but I noticed that he soon stopped drinking beer and started observing noontime prayers, bowing toward Mecca on the floor of our dining room, which we had turned into an office. "This makes me feel better inside," he said. Gamal, who earned $175 a month as my Los Angeles Times Cairo bureau manager, was twenty-eight years old. He had a university degree in business, although he had never attended any classes. (College students are taught to memorize, not reason, in Egypt, and class attendance is not mandatory, so he crammed until dawn with the help of tutors before each exam period.) He had fulfilled his two-year military obligation, although I don't think he ever actually put on an army uniform--he had an influential friend in...

Product details

• Authors: David Lamb
• Publisher: Vintage USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.03.2002
• EAN: 9781400030415
• ISBN: 978-1-4000-3041-5
• No. of pages: 368
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 205 mm x 20 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Travel > Travelogues, traveller's tales > World, Arctic, Antarctic