Spring 1992

T he Arab World Today

William R. Polk

Fifth edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.524 pages, maps. LC 91- 8768. ISBN 0-674-04319-7 $34.95 hardcover. ISBN 0-674-04320-0 $14.95 paperback.

Review by Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr., Ph.D. The Pennsylvania State University

D e s p i t e a change of title, this book purports to be a revised and expanded version of Polk's earlier work, initially called The United States and the Arab World and later (in its 1980 version) simply The Arab World. It surveys the course of Arab history since pre-Islamic Arabia, introduces Arab society and culture within their geographi- cal context, provides a detailed coverage of recent political and economic trends and events in the region, and discusses extensively the Arab policies of the United States government. It is lucidly written and is accessible to readers with no previous exposure to Arab hstory and culture.

For a reviewer who knew the earlier versions of The Arab World Today, reading this edition is very much like meeting a friend whom one has not seen for a long time. The friend looks familiar and has kept some of the endearing traits of his or her youth. Regrettably, the friend has also put on too much weight, seems to become garrulous after a few drinks, and no longer seems quite so

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Reference and Bibliography

engaging or as promising as he or she did twenty-plus years ago. This reviewer assigned the first and second editions of Polk's book to introductory Middle East history survey courses in the 1960s and early 1970s, and almost all the students who read it then liked it immensely. The style was clear, and the book covered many aspects of Arab village and Bedouin life and introduced students to some of the social changes that were producing what he called "the New Arab Man."

United States and the Arab World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965), still retaining most of the original chapter titles and content, but with additional chapters on subsequent phases of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iran-Iraq War, the Lebanese Civil War, and the policies of the Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and Bush administrations. There is also a new Preface that discusses changes in the Arab world since 1965, leading up to the 1990-91 Gulf Crisis, with a trenchant critique of U.S. policies and attitudes toward the Middle East and of his own developmental approach to the study of international politics.

problems abound. Discussions of Bedouin and village life remain anchored in the 1960s. Figures on Lebanon's percentage of Shi'ite inhabitants (p. 22), the Arabs' oil income (p. 25), Egypt's Suez Canal revenues (p. 25), and Lebanon's important landing and transport facilities (p. 26) all seem to have come, unaltered, from earlier editions. The chapter on the Bedouin Arabs' culture, poetry, and virtues is still a good introduction, although Polk's own experience crossing Arabia by camel might have freshened some of his insights. In his chapter on Islam, Polk implies (p. 42) that Muhammad was the "founder" of Islam, a usage to which Muslims object and which he had avoided in his first edition, calling him "the Messenger." Both editions contain errors in chapter 4: the date of the Battle of Tours is given as 738 instead of 732 (p. 51) and that of Harun al- Rashid's death as 829 instead of 809 (p. 54). Polk's reference to the Iranian empire of the "Saffavids" (p. 58) should be the Saffarids. The Mamluks took power in Cairo in 1250, not 1260 (p. 62). Polk's treatment of Ottoman rule over the Arabs remains disappointingly brief, whereas he devotes more space than necessary to European colonialism. In describing France's separation of Greater Lebanon from Syria, he foreshadows the Lebanese Civil War of 1958 but omits the one of 1975-90. One other error appears in a footnote (p. 473), stating that Lyndon Johnson had promised the Jordanians

The Arab World Today is a greatly expanded version of The

When one starts reading the main body of this work, however,

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Siorina 1992

in 1973 (the year of his death) that the Israelis would evacuate the lands they had just occupied (1967) within six months. Polk also repeats himself in treating the effects of Muhammad Ali’s rule on Syria and of British colonialism on Egypt and Iraq. Although these errors are regrettable, his later chapters also provide valuable insights into the Arab view of the Palestine problem, the Iran-Iraq War, the fighting in Lebanon, and the Gulf Crisis.

and culture that one could safely assign to beginning students or recommend to nonspecialist adult readers were extremely scarce. Several general introductory textbooks now exist, however, and more focused studies of Arab politics, economics, society, and culture are available to specialists. Polk‘s work cannot equal the magisterial treatment of Arab history available in Albert Hourani’s History ofthe Arab Peoples (also published in 1991 by Harvard University Press), nor does it treat Arab politics in as systematic and analytical a treatment as James Bill and Robert Springborg’s Politics in the Middle East (3d ed.; New York: HarperCollins, 1990). The Arab World Today is lucidly written and often perceptive, but it needs to be brought up to date or, as the jacket claims it already is, ”thoroughly revised.’’

At the time Polk’s book first appeared, books on Arab history

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