Un viaje a través de la política, la sociedad y la cultura de los árabes desde los días del Imperio romano hasta la actualidad. La clave para entender el mundo árabe actual (y futuro) es comprender su pasado. McHugo revela cómo el mundo árabe llegó a ser lo que es hoy, por qué el cambio era inevitable, y qué podemos esperar después de la primavera árabe. Concisa, breve, útil y práctica, esta historia sirve también de guía sobre la cultura y la política de la región. Revisada y actualizada,...

Syria's descent into civil war has already claimed an estimated 200,000 lives while nearly nine million people have fled their homes. This is now the greatest humanitarian and political crisis of the twenty-first century. In this timely account, John McHugo charts the history of Syria from the First World War to the present and considers why Syria's foundations as a nation have proved so fragile. He examines the country's thwarted attempts at independence under French rule before turning t...

The key to understanding the Arab world today is unlocking its past. In this authoritative account, John McHugo takes the reader through the political, social and intellectual history of the Arabs from the Roman Empire right up to the present day. Going beyond the headlines, he describes in vivid detail a series of key turning points in Arab history - from the mission of the Prophet Muhammad and the expansion of Islam to the region's interaction with Western ideas and the rise of Islamism....

This "brilliant and erudite" history by the award-winning Arabist provides vital context for understanding the contemporary Middle East (Patrick Seale, author of Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East).From Algeria and Libya to Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, the Arab world commands Western headlines. Nowhere else does the unfolding of events have such significant consequences for America. And yet its complex politics and cultures elude the grasp of most W...

The 1400-year-old schism between Sunnis and Shi`is has rarely been as toxic as it is today, feeding wars and communal strife in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and many other countries, with tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran escalating. In this richly layered and engrossing account, John McHugo reveals how this great divide occurred. Charting the story of Islam from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day, he describes the conflicts that raged over the succes...

"A fluent introduction to Syria's recent past, this book provides the backstory to the country's collapse into brutal civil conflict" (Andrew Arsan, author of Lebanon: A Country in Fragments).The fall of Syria into civil war over the past two years has spawned a regional crisis with reverberations growing louder in each passing month. In this timely account, John McHugo seeks to contextualize the headlines, providing broad historical perspective and a rich...