Much has been written in recent years about the Middle East. At the same time, no other region has been as misunderstood, nor framed in so many clichés and mistakenly-held beliefs. In this much-needed exposé Fred Halliday selects one hundred of the most commonly misconstrued 'facts' – in the political, cultural, social and historical spheres – and illuminates each case without compromising its underlying complexities. The Israel-Palestine crisis, the Iran-Iraq war, the US-led Gulf incursio...

This collection of essays offers a general analysis of the Middle East and more focused country-by-country examples. Nationalism and Islamism are re-examined to demonstrate their ongoing relevance and relationship to the present-day Arab context and identity. This is followed by a closer look at Islamist movements in Turkey, Iran and Tunisia and how these forces may either come to erode the secular state (as in Turkey and Tunisia) or bolster the Islamic one (in the case of Iran). The autho...

Examines the causes of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and also provides a reasoned approach as to what the future may hold. As the dust settled around the devastation of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, a host of questions emerged surrounding the attacks, the motives behind them and their future implications. In Two Hours that Shook the World Fred Halliday expands on the many socio-cultural, religious and political problems that have plagued the Middle East an...

Fred Halliday writes: 'The Arab Middle East is the one with the longest history of contact with the west; yet it is probably the one least understood. Part of the misunderstanding is due to the romantic mythology that has long appeared to shroud the deserts of the peninsula. Where old myths have broken down, new ones have absorbed them or taken their place. Now the Sheikh of Arabia has stepped down from his camel. Instead, through the delusive lens of the "energy crisis" he is seen to be r...

Originally completed mere months before the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Fred Halliday’s study of twentieth-century Iran was not only incredibly timely but a deeply researched, thought-provoking work. It masterfully surveys the country’s uneven capitalist development, state-building and class structure, security and military apparatus, dissent and opposition movements, and foreign relations. Even decades later it remains among the most sophisticated and compelling analyses of this period of...

Fred Halliday always combined the broad sweep of modern history, its currents and ideas, with a profound knowledge of modern revolutions, the Middle East and national movements. This collection of columns written for openDemocracy between 2004 and 2009 is proof of a subtle worldview that continues to generate questions: what is the relation between religion, nationalism and progress? Is a new international order possible? When is intervention a force for progress? From the big headline top...

In Marxism and Philosophy Korsch argues for a reexamination of the relationship between Marxist theory and bourgeois philosophy, and insists on the centrality of the Hegelian dialectic and a commitment to revolutionary praxis. Although widely attacked in its time, Marxism and Philosophy has attained a place among the most important works of twentieth-century Marxist theory, and continues to merit critical reappraisal from scholars and activists today.

Far more than just a military conflict, the 'War on Terror' has been a struggle over values and meanings, a desperate contest for hearts and minds in which language has become the battlefield. In this highly original book, Fred Halliday takes us on a tour of this new war-zone, its artillery and trenches, minefields and booby-traps. Drawing on years of painstaking collation, Halliday shows how the 'War on Terror' has brought us not just new words, such as 'Gitmo', and new imports, such as '...

The international relations of the Middle East have long been dominated by uncertainty and conflict. External intervention, interstate war, political upheaval and interethnic violence are compounded by the vagaries of oil prices and the claims of military, nationalist and religious movements. The purpose of this book is to set this region and its conflicts in context, providing on the one hand a historical introduction to its character and problems, and on the other a reasoned analysis of ...

One of the great contrarians of international relations scholarship, Fred Halliday was able to combine his understanding of the broad sweep of modern history with a profound knowledge of modern revolutions, the Middle East, and national movements. This collection of Halliday’s political essays written for the online journal openDemocracy between 2004 and 2009 is proof of a subtle worldview that continues to generate questions: What is the relation between religion, nationalism, an...

One of the great contrarians of international relations scholarship, Fred Halliday was able to combine his understanding of the broad sweep of modern history with a profound knowledge of modern revolutions, the Middle East, and national movements. This collection of Halliday’s political essays written for the online journal openDemocracy between 2004 and 2009 is proof of a subtle worldview that continues to generate questions: What is the relation between religion, nationalism, an...

One of the great contrarians of international relations scholarship, Fred Halliday was able to combine his understanding of the broad sweep of modern history with a profound knowledge of modern revolutions, the Middle East, and national movements. This collection of Halliday’s political essays written for the online journal openDemocracy between 2004 and 2009 is proof of a subtle worldview that continues to generate questions: What is the relation between religion, nationalism, an...