Lords Of The Desert

Author : James Barr
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781471139802
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lords of the Desert written by James Barr and published by . This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guardian Book of the Day New Statesman Book of the Year History Today Book of the Year Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year BBC History Magazine Book of the Year 'Bustles impressively with detail and anecdote' --Sunday Times 'Consistently fascinating' --The Spectator 'Beautifully written and deeply researched' --The Observer '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 Upon victory in 1945, Britain still dominated the Middle East. She directly ruled Palestine and Aden, was the kingmaker in Iran, the power behind the thrones of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, and protected the sultan of Oman and the Gulf sheikhs. 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. The British did not give in gracefully to this onslaught. 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. Reviews for A Line In The Sand:- 'Masterful' --The Spectator 'With superb research and telling quotations, Barr has skewered the whole shabby story' --The Times 'Lively and entertaining. He has scoured the diplomatic archives of the two powers and has come up with a rich haul that brings his narrative to life' --Financial Times

Author : James Barr
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 1541617401
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lords of the Desert written by James Barr and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A path-breaking history of how the United States superseded Great Britain as the preeminent power in the Middle East, with urgent lessons for the present day We usually assume that Arab nationalism brought about the end of the British Empire in the Middle East--that Gamal Abdel Nasser and other Arab leaders led popular uprisings against colonial rule that forced the overstretched British from the region. In Lords of the Desert, historian James Barr draws on newly declassified archives to argue instead that the US was the driving force behind the British exit. Though the two nations were allies, they found themselves at odds over just about every question, from who owned Saudi Arabia's oil to who should control the Suez Canal. Encouraging and exploiting widespread opposition to the British, the US intrigued its way to power--ultimately becoming as resented as the British had been. As Barr shows, it is impossible to understand the region today without first grappling with this little-known prehistory.

Author : Michael Asher
Publisher : Skyhorse
ISBN 13 : 9781616085940
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Death in the Sahara written by Michael Asher and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under-armed in hostile territory, and foolishly employing the enemy as guides, the one hundred explorers were ambushed and stranded without camels or supplies in the deserts of southern Algeria. Many were killed outright, and for four months the survivors were menaced by the Tuareg, the “lords of the desert,” robbed, starved, and tricked into eating poisoned fruit. To escape, the men hid in the wastelands of the Sahara with little hope of finding food or water. Finally forced to eat each other, only a dozen men lived to tell their tale. The story of their one-thousand-mile journey is one of the most astonishing narratives of survival ever recorded.

Author : James Barr
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393335275
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Setting the Desert on Fire: T. E. Lawrence and Britain's Secret War in Arabia, 1916-1918 written by James Barr and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2009-07-06 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greed and intrigue combine explosively in this gripping, masterly account of a key moment in the history of the Middle East, and a portrait of T.E. Lawrence--Lawrence of Arabia himself--that is bright, nuanced, and full of fresh insights into the true nature of the master mythmaker. Photos. Maps.

Author : James Barr
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393070654
Total Pages : 479 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Line in the Sand: The Anglo-French Struggle for the Middle East, 1914-1948 written by James Barr and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-01-09 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses recently declassified French and British government documents to describe how the two countries secretly divided the Middle East during World War I and the effect these mandates had on local Arabs and Jews.

Author : Patricia Grasso
Publisher : Lachesis Publishing Inc
ISBN 13 : 1927555906
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Desert Eden (Book 3 Devereux Series) written by Patricia Grasso and published by Lachesis Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Alison Jolly
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 9780618367511
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lords and Lemurs written by Alison Jolly and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2004 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the rich human, plant, and animal diversity of this Isle off the East Coast of Africa, home to lemurs, unusual reptiles, and other creatures more at home in mythology than natural science.

Author : Georgina Howell
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 1429934018
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gertrude Bell written by Georgina Howell and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A marvelous tale of an adventurous life of great historical import She has been called the female Lawrence of Arabia, which, while not inaccurate, fails to give Gertrude Bell her due. She was at one time the most powerful woman in the British Empire: a nation builder, the driving force behind the creation of modern-day Iraq. Born in 1868 into a world of privilege, Bell turned her back on Victorian society, choosing to read history at Oxford and going on to become an archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author (of Persian Pictures, The Desert and the Sown, and many other collections), poet, photographer, and legendary mountaineer (she took off her skirt and climbed the Alps in her underclothes). She traveled the globe several times, but her passion was the desert, where she traveled with only her guns and her servants. Her vast knowledge of the region made her indispensable to the Cairo Intelligence Office of the British government during World War I. She advised the Viceroy of India; then, as an army major, she traveled to the front lines in Mesopotamia. There, she supported the creation of an autonomous Arab nation for Iraq, promoting and manipulating the election of King Faisal to the throne and helping to draw the borders of the fledgling state. Gertrude Bell, vividly told and impeccably researched by Georgina Howell, is a richly compelling portrait of a woman who transcended the restrictions of her class and times, and in so doing, created a remarkable and enduring legacy. " ... there’s never a dull moment in the peerless life of this trailblazing character." - Kirkus Reviews

Author : Peter Matthiessen
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307819647
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book At Play in the Fields of the Lord written by Peter Matthiessen and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-05-02 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a malarial outpost in the South American rain forest, two misplaced gringos converge and clash in this novel from the National Book Award-winning author. Martin Quarrier has come to convert the elusive Niaruna Indians to his brand of Christianity. Lewis Moon, a stateless mercenary who is himself part Indian, has come to kill them on the behalf of the local comandante. Out of this struggle Peter Matthiessen creates an electrifying moral thriller—adapted into a movie starring John Lithgow, Kathy Bates, and Tom Waits. A novel of Conradian richness, At Play in the Fields of the Lord explores both the varieties of spiritual experience and the politics of cultural genocide.

Author : Leona Wisoker
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781503244481
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Secrets of the Sands written by Leona Wisoker and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2014-11-17 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book 1 of the Children of the Desert series. A THIEF CHOOSES THE WRONG VICTIM. A DESERT LORD ABANDONS HIS LANDS. A YOUNG WOMAN ACCEPTS A STEWARDSHIP. THEY ALL FIND THEIR DESTINY ON THE SANDS. When Cafad Scratha was a child, someone murdered his entire family. People have questioned his sanity ever since. As the last Scratha, he's dedicated his life to catching the murderers. Now a desert lord, one of the mysterious elite of the southlands, he stands above every mundane political imperative and rule of courtesy-or so it seems until the king of the northlands tries to bring Scratha to heel. Scratha's bizarre reaction throws the independent southlands into chaos: he hands temporary control of his family lands over to the king, takes on an assumed name, and sneaks out of the city. The king sends Alyea, a young noblewoman, to hold the ceded prize: but while she understands kingdom politics, she's quickly out of her depth in the byzantine world of the southlands. What she thought was a quick ticket to power turns out to be a dangerous assignment that may well lead her to a literal dead end. Just as trapped is Idisio, the orphaned street-thief sent by a chance encounter into Scratha's service. As his new and throughly unstable master goes undercover, Idisio finds himself drawn into the mysterious world of the desert lords and their secrets. Idisio's growing comprehension of the world he's stepped into doesn't just change his beliefs; it leads him to an unsuspected truth about himself that will change his life forever. "A storyteller with a good deal of promise." - C.J. Cherryh ..".a lushly visual and highly detailed world of desert tribes, a language of beads, and a unique way of viewing the world." -Library Journal "intriguing...engaging." -Publishers Weekly "The final product put me in awe of where the world-building skills of Wisoker are at this early stage of her career...reminiscent of something out of an Ursula K. LeGuin novel in detail and complexity. Wisoker, like the best authors of this genre, has created a completely original society upon which to tell her story." -SF Site "Secrets of the Sands, the first novel of Leona Wisoker, is a truly amazing accomplishment. Restrained yet tense, compelling, intricate and imaginative, it contains so much of the everything lacking in most modern fantasy one can find oneself moved to tears when the pages finally run out. If all first novels were this good, no television would ever be turned on again." -CJ Henderson, author of Brooklyn Knight "Leona Wisoker is a gifted storyteller and in Secrets of the Sands she has succeeded in crafting a refreshingly unpredictable tale set in a stunningly rich and detailed world." -Michael J. Sullivan, author of the Riyria Revelations series "With a flair for evoking exotic locales and an eye for detail, Leona Wisoker has crafted a first novel peopled by characters who are more than they first seem. From the orphaned street-thief who possesses an uncanny ability to read situations and people, to the impetuous noblewoman thrust into a world of political intrigue, Wisoker weaves a colourful tapestry of desert tribes, honour, revenge, and an ancient, supernatural race." -Janine Cross, author of the Dragon Temple Saga ..".Wisoker makes a praiseworthy work when it comes to world building, creating with care and without haste a strong world, one piece at a time...another unique element of the story which...certainly will be developed more in the series' next novels." -Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews