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Título: KINGMAKERS: THE INVENTION OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST
Autor: MEYER, KARL ERNEST & BRYSAC, SHAREEN BLAIR
Año: 2009
Género: HISTORIA Y MITOLOGÍA
Formato: EPUB

A brilliant narrative history tracing today's troubles back to grandiose imperial overreach of Great Britain and the United States.

«Kingmakers» is the story of how the modern Middle East came to be, told through the lives of the Britons and Americans who shaped it. Some are famous (Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell); others infamous (Harry St. John Philby -also known as "Jack" Philby or Sheikh Abdullah-, father of "Kim" Philby); some forgotten (Sir Mark Sykes, Israel's godfather, and Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson, the territorial creator of Iraq); some controversial (the CIA's Miles Copeland and the Pentagon's Paul Wolfowitz). All helped enthrone rulers in a region whose very name is an Anglo-American invention. As a bonus, we meet the British Empire's power couple, Lord and Lady Lugard (Flora Shaw): she named Nigeria, he ruled it; she used the power of the Times of London to attempt a regime change in the gold-rich Transvaal [Transvaal was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994]. The narrative is character-driven, and the aim is to restore to life the colorful figures who for good or ill gave us the Middle East in which Americans are enmeshed today.

Shareen Blair Brysac, formerly a prize-winning documentary producer at CBS News, is the author of «Resisting Hitler» and co-author of «Tournament of Shadows» and «Kingmakers» with Karl Ernest Meyer.

Karl Ernest Meyer has written extensively on foreign affairs as a staff member of the New York Times and the Washington Post.

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