Paul Tchir (Author of Beyond Time and Space)

Paul rated a book really liked it Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table by Thomas Malory	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It might seem odd to write a review of a such a well-known work on Goodreads, particularly as it is over half a millennium old. If anything is to be said, let alone anything new, it should be said by scholars and experts in the literature of the time ...more
Sep 07, 2026 01:34PM · like · see review
Paul rated a book really liked it Race and Sport: The Struggle for Equality On and Off the Field by Charles K. Ross	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Race and Sport, edited by Charles K. Ross, is an essay collection drawn from a symposium on its eponymous topic. As such, its contents are more eclectic and less standardized than one might assume from an edited volume, although all are ultimately ac ...more
Aug 29, 2026 06:43PM · like · see review
Paul rated a book really liked it Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen: The Huthi Phenomenon by Barak A. Salmoni	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 30, 2026 02:06PM · 1 like · like
Paul rated a book liked it Unexplained Natural Phenomena (True-Life Encounters Series) by Keith Tutt (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Unexplained Natural Phenomena by Keith Tutt fits in the genre of books seeking to explore the mysteries of the world. Funded by the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy), it covers a wide array of unexplained phenomena in three major chapters, Powers of the Mind ...more
Apr 27, 2026 08:28PM · like · see review
Paul rated a book liked it Scientific Blunders: A Brief History of How Wrong Scientists Can Sometimes Be... by Robert Youngson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The lighthearted title of Scientific Blunders is designed to attract an audience appropriate to the author’s intent, but does not reflect the book’s contents fully. The subtitle, “A Brief History of How Wrong Scientists Can Sometimes Be” is more accu ...more
Apr 08, 2026 02:22PM · like · see review
Paul has read Embodying the Revolution: The Hebrew Experience and the Globalization of Modern Sports in Interwar Palestine by Ofer Idels	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 22, 2026 10:02PM · like
Paul rated a book liked it The Time and the Place and Other Stories by Naguib Mahfouz	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It may seem a bit unfair to review The Time and the Place, since it is an international curated volume of short stories from Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz, and thus does not reflect the author’s personal organization. In addition, these w ...more
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Paul rated a book liked it The Elusive Peace: The Middle East in the Twentieth Century by William R. Polk	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Elusive Peace, published in 1979, presents a history of the Middle East that is very much a product of its time. Coming out just a year after Edward Said’s seminal work Orientalism, it represents the classic model of the Middle East as a problem ...more
Aug 10, 2025 04:24PM · like · see review
Paul rated a book liked it Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist, 1879-1924 by Huda Shaarawi	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Harem Years, translated and edited by Margot Badran, has a clear goal, but goes about achieving it in an arguably unorthodox way. Its principal objective is to translate the memoirs of Egyptian feminist Huda Shaarawi to give readers a rare glimpse in ...more
Jul 16, 2025 11:47PM · like · see review
Paul rated a book really liked it Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup: Politics, Controversy, Change by Paul Michael Brannagan	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup was published the same year as its eponymous event, but before the Cup was actually held. As such, it does not serve as a retrospective of the games, but as a summary of the discourse surrounding them before they wer ...more
Jul 08, 2025 07:29PM · 1 like · like · see review

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Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
by Thomas Malory

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It might seem odd to write a review of a such a well-known work on Goodreads, particularly as it is over half a millennium old. If anything is to be said, let alone anything new, it should be said by scholars and experts in the literature of the time It might seem odd to write a review of a such a well-known work on Goodreads, particularly as it is over half a millennium old. If anything is to be said, let alone anything new, it should be said by scholars and experts in the literature of the time period. I was given a copy of this book in graduate school and set it aside for nearly 20 decades before I decided to pick it up and read through it. After completing it, I wanted did not want to review the work as a whole, or even the particular edition I was given (rendered by Keith Baines and introduces by Robert Graves), but desired instead to record some thoughts on the experience of going through it.

The first consideration, as noted in the introduction, is that this does not particularly follow narrative structure as we know it today. The tale is primarily chronological and there is cause-and-effect, but its logic does not always follow what one might expect. The motivations of characters will change at the drop of a hat and loyalties switch in a single sentence, often for reasons that seem to make little sense. It is therefore difficult to experience this work as a story that unfolds towards its conclusion; rather, the closest approximation is a series of short stories with related characters, with the narrative returning to the primary story of King Arthur seemingly at random. That is not to say that the side narratives of the knights have no bearing on what happens, but the connection from one point to other is not always clear.

Secondly, the original author’s interests are not really in what we might consider the “action” of the story. As is also mentioned in the introduction, Malory rarely, if ever, goes into detail about the large battles and instead summarizes them rather blandly as a product of their casualties. Since there are so many knights mentioned in the work, this makes it difficult to follow whether someone more important to the tale was killed. At one juncture, I had to flip back to figure out where a main character died when he was mentioned as deceased later on; the prominence of a character rarely impacts the emphasis given to their death. In effect, Malory is most concerned with the moral and Christian lessons imparted by the telling; the more mundane concerns are of less importance.

The third consideration to note is that the side stories are highly repetitive, with the motivations, actions, quest elements, and results being largely the same across them. A knight is usually told that he must go on some quest to rescue or kill someone (usually both), often by an important figure in disguise. This person will usually try to trick, deceive, or tempt the knight at some point, and the knight will often fall for it; this often involves a woman that the knight falls for. At the end, depending on how he performed morally, he may be cursed or redeemed, and he may either kill his enemy or recruit him to his cause, with this result being determined less by the logic an audience of today would expect and more by Malory’s sense of morality. Knights are either allied with King Arthur’s famous Round Table or stand against it, often changing sides rather whimsically by modern standards.

These tales constitute the majority of the book and, as such, it is difficult to recommend the “best” way to read through this. Trying to do it all in a single sitting, or a series of sittings, is taxing even for the serious reader, and the repetition can cause one to glaze over parts often, requiring them to then go back and verify which knights were killed and review whether they were “main” characters. My edition had a brief appendix at the back that helped somewhat, but it only covers the principal figures. On the other hand, it would be difficult to say what sections a reader should consider skimming and which they should read in more detail. It is tempting to suggest reading just the sections that one is familiar with in popular culture, but since the narrative structure differs significantly from modern tellings, it can also be difficult to pinpoint which chapters would be best for getting the original story, while still skipping the repetitive portions. Overall, I would recommend reading Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur only if you have a serious interest in medieval literature. Picking it up just to see what the “real” story is behind the movies will likely lead to more frustration than interesting revelations. ...more

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Race and Sport: The Struggle for Equality On and Off the Field
by Charles K. Ross

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Race and Sport, edited by Charles K. Ross, is an essay collection drawn from a symposium on its eponymous topic. As such, its contents are more eclectic and less standardized than one might assume from an edited volume, although all are ultimately ac Race and Sport, edited by Charles K. Ross, is an essay collection drawn from a symposium on its eponymous topic. As such, its contents are more eclectic and less standardized than one might assume from an edited volume, although all are ultimately academic. Each selection also trends towards being accessible for a general audience, rather than a specialist one, so there is less theory here than modern scholars may prefer. The volume contains no subsections, so each entry stands on its own rather than contributing to a broader subtheme.

The work begins with a chapter on Fritz Pollard, a pioneering black player of American football. This sets the bar high as the first of the collection, as it covers its subject in a way that has not been done previously or, arguably, since, and does very well in highlighting his understated contributions to black sporting history. Arguing that Pollard should have some official status in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the author underlines his contributions as a player and a coach that paved the way for future black players to transform the game. The following chapter does the same with boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, except emphasizing how his commitment to managing his own financial affairs and building his image set an example that future black athletes would use to control their investments and secure their stability following their athletic careers. Both essays do an excellent job of highlighting critical, yet underdiscussed, aspects of these figures.

The third chapter is the only one to focus on women, as it examines the role that basketball played in instilling community values into black female college students. Focusing on the first half of the 20th century, the author makes excellent use of limited sources, as well as oral interviews, to demonstrate the key role that sport played in these women’s lives. Next is an essay that compares the experience of black and Latin baseball players during spring training in the aftermath of Jackie Robinson breaking the Major League Baseball color barrier. It does well in reminding the reader that Robinson’s achievements did not immediately end racism in sport; in fact, the resistance from conservative elements that it engendered actually increased hostility in many aspects. The segregation encountered by teams training in the south, and the general unwillingness of owners to push back against it, emphasizes how baseball’s commitment to integration for the first decade and a half remained relatively shallow, and it took considerable time before players were in a position to push back themselves.

Chapter five focuses on American imperialism through sport, a topic that at the time had been broached only rarely. As such, it explores how American sports administrators in Asia, and especially the Philippines, utilized physical activity as part of the “civilizing mission” that would help distinguish the “advanced” races from all others and justify American colonization in the early 20th century. The following chapter looks into the relationship between black student athletes and broader problems in the African-American community. Author Earl Smith argues that the success of individuals and the surrounding athletic culture do little to alleviate Issues such as crime and poverty in the community, because such athletes tend to reinforce the idea that education is uncool or unmasculine. Thus for black student athletes, education is devalued and his (as males are the focus) worth is based on athletic ability and other traits that today may be called “toxic masculinity”. Thus Smith argues for a new vision of the student-athlete that sees sport as a vehicle to improve the education level of the black community, rather than college as merely a potential ladder to sport superstardom.

In the penultimate chapter, author Patrick Miller discusses “muscular assimilationism”, which is the notion that black achievement in the sporting realm could be used as evidence, or a call, for the ability of black Americans to become integrated into broader society. Miller chronicles the ways in which athletic success was used to move towards equal rights, as well as the ways in which white society resisted this process and imposed limitations. The final chapter attempts to explain the lack of academic success among black student athletes and the dearth of effort that has been made at the college level to address this problem.

Overall, Race and Sport provides a solid foundation for some of the basic issues surrounding this topic, most, if not all, of which are still relevant today. Scholars in sport studies will likely find this collection outdated given the past 20 years of study on race and sport, and may feel that much of the material provides little more than a rudimentary understanding of its topics. For new students and general audiences, however, the essays could prove to be a useful entry point into the academic study of this important subject. It also remains a crucial work in the historiography of race and sport, as without it, we may not have had as much of the excellent research that was produced over the past two decades. ...more

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Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen by Barak A. Salmoni

Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen: The Huthi Phenomenon
by Barak A. Salmoni

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Unexplained Natural Phenomena by Keith Tutt

Unexplained Natural Phenomena (True-Life Encounters Series)
by Keith Tutt (Goodreads Author)

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Unexplained Natural Phenomena by Keith Tutt fits in the genre of books seeking to explore the mysteries of the world. Funded by the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy), it covers a wide array of unexplained phenomena in three major chapters, Powers of the Mind Unexplained Natural Phenomena by Keith Tutt fits in the genre of books seeking to explore the mysteries of the world. Funded by the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy), it covers a wide array of unexplained phenomena in three major chapters, Powers of the Mind, Mysterious Beings, and Incredible Happenings, with each chapter divided into numerous subheadings for particular topics. In general, each section attempts to emphasize the “unexplainable” nature of something and rejects scientific explanations as incomplete. The author’s brief foreword refers to these scientific explanations as “easy answers, common prejudices, and received opinions” and implores the reader to search for “truth” (perhaps, given the era, playing into the popularity of The X-Files). The information he presents is left up for the reader to evaluate.

Each chapter covers a variety of topics in no particular order that range from possible to outrageous, with no particular narrative that builds from one range to the other. For example, in Powers of the Mind the discussion of near-death experiences is mostly plausible, as this is a relatively common phenomenon that has yet to be understood by science. Topics like dreams and precognition are also palatable, or at least entertaining to read about if nothing else. When it comes to psychic surgery, however, the discussion of the topic is cherrypicked to make events seem unexplainable, when in reality there was plenty of evidence of the practice as medical fraud at the time of the book’s publication. Although Tutt does acknowledge some of how science has debunked psychic surgery, he leaves the topic open to debate.

The second section, Mysterious Beings, follows a similar path. Some subjects are treated purely scientifically, with tantalizing topics such as vampires, werewolves, and zombies mostly debunked. Others, such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, are relatively harmless and treated as if to say “hey, maybe” to their existence. Topics such as angels, nature spirits, and fairies, however, are treated with far more seriousness than they deserve. The author does point out that the Cottingley Fairies were a confirmed hoax, but nevertheless uses the incident as a springboard to have the reader consider if fairies are truly real. Angels, meanwhile, are treated as if they could potentially be real and are not just odd experiences or even fabricated entirely.

Finally, Incredible Happenings is an uneven chapter that ends on a positive note, with crop circles essentially being dismissed as clever hoaxes. The section before, however, covers Landscape Zodiacs as potentially true, which is not only an extraordinary claim, but also an idea that had been widely discredited well before the book’s publication. The topic of Feng Shui, on the other hand, is so innocuous that it seems as if extra details had been included to make it seem more mysterious or mystical. Ball lightning is a real, if unexplained, phenomenon, while the Face on Mars has been conclusively debunked (albeit not until after the book was written). This may be an intentional technique, as it keeps the reader disoriented as to what is plausible and what is not, making almost anything discussed seem possible.

Overall, one might argue that taking Unexplained Natural Phenomena as seriously as this review does is missing the point. The work as a whole has a “cash register line pulp” feel to it that could boil the work down to just entertainment and the fun of believing, much as the channel itself may purport to do. Yet the author seems to take the topic seriously, challenging the reader to open their mind. As someone who is open-minded about paranormal phenomena, I would argue that doubting the scientific explanations are not just a matter of taking “easy answers” from “conservative science”, but trusting experts over what we personally want to believe is true. In some cases, such as psychic surgery, belief in the phenomenon could even be dangerous. On the whole, I am not certain who the intended audience is either. It is too dense and straightforward to appeal to youth, who might otherwise be interested in exploring the unknown for fun, and too uneven in its presentation of topics to appeal to an older, more skeptical reader. The best use of this book, therefore, might be as a directory, to identify topics that seem interesting to learn about and use your own resources to investigate what Tutt has left out and how others have explained the unexplained. ...more

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Scientific Blunders: A Brief History of How Wrong Scientists Can Sometimes Be...
by Robert Youngson

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The lighthearted title of Scientific Blunders is designed to attract an audience appropriate to the author’s intent, but does not reflect the book’s contents fully. The subtitle, “A Brief History of How Wrong Scientists Can Sometimes Be” is more accu The lighthearted title of Scientific Blunders is designed to attract an audience appropriate to the author’s intent, but does not reflect the book’s contents fully. The subtitle, “A Brief History of How Wrong Scientists Can Sometimes Be” is more accurate, as this work is an account of how even some of the greatest scientists have erred in their quest for knowledge. As such, “blunder” is used nebulously and addresses a wide array of scientific faults during the process of experimentation. At many junctions, therefore, what is covered here is less lighthearted than simple mistakes, with some sections highlighting errors that had considerably deleterious impacts for many years. These were often not just one-time miscalculations or misunderstandings, but long-term and unrealized biases that spanned multiple thinkers, and even generations of scientific thought.

Youngson divides the book into 11 sections by broad scientific fields, each with several chapters about particular incidents within those fields. He also provides a brief preface that highlights his purpose of educating readers on the scientific method and the pitfalls of bias in this process. His audience is stated explicitly as non-scientists, and he reveals that his goal is to help them understand the value of good science by unearthing the bad version.

Reviewing this work story by story, or even section by section, would be of limited value, as the format is relatively consistent throughout and the enjoyment of the reader of any particular tale is going to be based on their personal interests. One aspect that does differ significantly, however, is the breadth of what each part covers. For example, the first section is “Cosmology and Earth Science” and begins with “Star Errors”, covering humans’ efforts to understand the universe around them. While a logical subject choice to begin with, this portion feels more like an account of the development of thought about the cosmos rather than an identification of particular blunders (even though the latter is present). This immediately sets the tone as somewhat patronizing, if unintentionally, since it feels as if the author is criticizing the intellect of early scientists rather than pointing out lighthearted mistakes.

This tone is present through most of the book, as the discussion of true “blunders” are sprinkled through pockets of heavy discussions. Additionally, many of the topics that follow are not as broad as the cosmos themselves. For example, in the second section, “Evolution”, the author discusses subjects such as the Piltdown Man hoax and dinosaur extinction, which are much more balanced in terms of analyzing errors in thinking in a lighthearted manner. In the latter case, he even concludes with the admission that “[t]he jury is still out on the cause of the death of the dinosaurs”, which does well in highlighting the ever-evolving nature of science.

The author continues with sections on physics, mathematics and computing, chemistry, biology, medical science, psychology, technology, science and religion, and the philosophy of science, with most following similar patterns to the first two parts. The penultimate section is critical of religion’s excesses as they reacted to the development of thought, but is not overly didactic about the nature or value of religion itself. The final section advocates for good science, while its last chapter takes a look at the relationship between science and religion again, focusing on the Christian Bible specifically, which does wander to some extent like a stream of thought. His sentiment is that religion has a place in the world for experiences that the rationality of science cannot engage, and thus scientists should be wary of attacking religion as a whole (although rejecting demonstrably unscientific notions is encouraged). There is no epilogue beyond this, which makes it a satisfactory ending to what is both a collection of scientific errors and a broader message about the virtue of good science.

Overall, Scientific Blunders manages to both succeed and fall short of reaching its target audience. It is definitely not a work for professional scientists and much of its organization serves to make the text more accessible. Its tone, however, will likely come off as pretentious, even patronizing, to its target reader, and thus may fail in convincing them about the fallibility of science, and the importance of distinguishing good and bad science, particularly as not all of the science has been boiled down to be sufficiently understandable to the layman. Youngson admits in his preface that what he is attempting to accomplish is a difficult task, and he certainly put in an admirable effort in drawing in his audience. Ultimately, at 30 years old, most readers will not have a reason to pick this up, as it is not a light read, although its most historical nature means that very little is formally out of date. ...more

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Embodying the Revolution: The Hebrew Experience and the Globalization of Modern Sports in Interwar Palestine
by Ofer Idels

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The Time and the Place and Other Stories
by Naguib Mahfouz

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It may seem a bit unfair to review The Time and the Place, since it is an international curated volume of short stories from Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz, and thus does not reflect the author’s personal organization. In addition, these w It may seem a bit unfair to review The Time and the Place, since it is an international curated volume of short stories from Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz, and thus does not reflect the author’s personal organization. In addition, these works have been translated into English, and thus some of the nuance and culture of the Arabic original is invariably lost, regardless of the quality. This, however, is the primary importance of this collection, as it contains translations of stories that might otherwise be ignored in favor of the author’s more well-known works. Thus, this review is not of the individual stories, which would require a more in-depth literary analysis and possibly a review of the Arabic originals, but instead of how they have been presented here.

In that regard, the introduction is the most important element, since it provides the context for all of the tales and why they were selected. It is typical of a volume produced in the early 1990s, but could have been expanded to provide more information, as it is only five soft cover pages. Most of this is a biography that covers the important turning points of his life, with some examples of the stories that came from this period sprinkled in. Since the original publication dates are only noted in small print in the front matter, however, one finds themselves constantly turning back to this introduction to see where the stories fit in to the author’s chronology.

Additionally, the organization of the introduction means that the examples that the editor raises are not presented in the same order as they are in the volume, and thus reviewing this text requires the reader to go back and scan the entire introduction until they locate the commentary on the story that they reading. Moreover, this commentary is sparse as a whole and generally only raises one tidbit about the story, which may not align with the reader’s interest in a particular tale, and thus may not aid the reader at all. More importantly, mention of some of the contents is absent entirely, forcing the reader to interpret them without sufficient context.

As for the stories themselves, many are enjoyable, although even as a historian of Egypt, some of the cultural context was lost on me. As such, a more casual reader would have to accept this volume as a “slice of life” presented in high literary fashion. Decoding meaning, and determining what the stories can tell someone about Egyptian life in that period, is certainly possible, but the sparse notes in the introduction will likely make such a process incomplete. This means that a reader might find some of the lighter tales more enjoyable, as they often touch upon concerns that transcend particular cultures. Some of the heavier, more Egypt-specific stories, however, will likely be difficult. The opening selection, “Zaabalawi” is good example: the quest-like structure and the religious undertones may seem familiar to most readers, but the specific context of Sufism, mentioned briefly in the introduction, will escape anyone not already familiar with that term.

Overall, The Time and the Place is valuable as a work that makes some of Mahfouz’s lesser-known writings more widely available. As noted in the introduction, only four of the 20 stories had previously been published in English. Unfortunately, a much more detailed and developed introduction, or contextual notes before each selection, would have been required to make this collection truly valuable. As such, this book would be of little interest to the casual reader and is more suited for readers already familiar with the cultural context. Given that most people in that category would likely be those able to read the works in Arabic, however, the audience for these translations is probably limited. It is best suited for someone with an academic interest in Egypt, but lacking the Arabic proficiency to engage literary material. Additionally, as this publication is over 35 years old now, I suspect that many of these stories have been republished in other collections, potentially with more context provided. Therefore, this volume may have been valuable at the time, but is now likely just a stepping stone to better works. ...more

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The Elusive Peace: The Middle East in the Twentieth Century
by William R. Polk

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The Elusive Peace, published in 1979, presents a history of the Middle East that is very much a product of its time. Coming out just a year after Edward Said’s seminal work Orientalism, it represents the classic model of the Middle East as a problem The Elusive Peace, published in 1979, presents a history of the Middle East that is very much a product of its time. Coming out just a year after Edward Said’s seminal work Orientalism, it represents the classic model of the Middle East as a problem needing to be solved and a product of political and economic factors, with only limited attention paid to social history. With that said, as a work published with a classroom audience in mind, its objective was to provide context for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the uninitiated. Keeping that in mind is an important part of understanding the book’s value, as is placing its author in the context of his role as a political consultant and civil servant who was personally involved in the diplomacy surrounding conflicts in the Middle East.

The book begins with a brief introduction that outlines foundations, including his goal of educating people about the conflict from the perspective of an involved party. The remainder is divided into three parts, albeit with only the first two being substantial and the third serving as more of an extended conclusion. Part One is directed towards providing an understanding of the Middle East as a whole, beginning with a chapter on the importance of “memory” until the age of nationalism. Here, he emphasizes the role of the Jewish and Muslim religions in the pre-modern Middle East. Despite approaching the subject from a more traditional perspective, he presents a relatively more positive and balanced perspective of Arabs and Muslims than many of his contemporaries.

Chapter two concerns the rise of nationalism, and tracks how memory and religion were negotiated with new conceptions of the nation. Here Polk focuses on Zionism and Arab nationalism, and how imperial machinations put the two at odds during World War I. They were on the opposite ends of chapter three’s subject, “The Struggle for Independence”, and not only contested for the same pieces of land, but had to maneuver around the hegemonic interests of the great powers. The fourth chapter, “The Growth of Capacity”, examines this struggle from an economic perspective to balance out the political focus of previous sections.

Part Two picks up with Israel and the Zionist movement having come out on top at the same time that new powers – the United States and the Soviet Union – came to dominate global politics after World War II. The Cold War brought new dynamics and interests that further complicated the situation, with the conflict over capitalism and socialism turning Israeli and Arab interests into tools that could be played against each other. In chapter six, the author acknowledges that the conflict was only “cold” in the United States and the USSR, and that the Middle East was a key physical battlefield for the conflict to play out. He places Israel, Palestine, and Egypt in particular into this context and shows how regional nationalisms became exploitable in the broader global conflict.

Chapter seven brings in Polk’s personal intervention as he explores the role of American democracy in resolving the conflict. Here his writing starts to become less historical and more pragmatic as his objective of using history as a tool to solve the contemporary conflict moves to the foreground. His eighth chapter takes a brief look at the role of Lebanon in the regional conflict, but is more hopeful about the Civil War’s resolution than the reality that came to be. Chapter nine looks at the relationship between Begin and Sadat, but is again more optimistic than the circumstances played out, as he could not predict Sadat’s assassination a few years later and the loss of Sadat’s potential in ending the conflict.

The final part, consisting of two chapters, looks forward from these historical ideas, beginning with “Potential for the Future”. Here, Polk takes a realistic survey of the economic resources of the Middle East and comments on how he feels they will impact political developments. The eleventh chapter, his official conclusion, does not summarize what was written previously, but attempts to answer three questions, one of which is about prospects for peace and two of which are about the role of the Middle East’s energy recourses in the global economy. His response to the first issue is that peace is possible, but that it will require shifts in mentalities from both sides and the acknowledgement that the alternative (i.e. violence) is less preferable. As to the second, particularity relevant given the oil crises of the 1970s, his argument is that the United States needs to find alternative sources of energy but, given the low likelihood of this happening in the near future, argues that this will give the Middle East more leverage in resolving regional conflicts.

Overall, The Elusive Peace accomplishes what it sets out to do: contextualize the contemporary regional conflict through a historical lens of politics and economics. Without delving too deeply into the social context, however, it is only able to paint a partial picture and, within a few years, developments, some predictable and some not, made his analysis and conclusions obsolete. Thus, while I would not say that there is anything particularly “wrong” about this work, as its scope was always limited, there is ultimately not much value in it for either scholars or casual readers, as the conflict has been covered much better (and with updated information) in the many decades since. ...more

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Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist, 1879-1924
by Huda Shaarawi

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Harem Years, translated and edited by Margot Badran, has a clear goal, but goes about achieving it in an arguably unorthodox way. Its principal objective is to translate the memoirs of Egyptian feminist Huda Shaarawi to give readers a rare glimpse in Harem Years, translated and edited by Margot Badran, has a clear goal, but goes about achieving it in an arguably unorthodox way. Its principal objective is to translate the memoirs of Egyptian feminist Huda Shaarawi to give readers a rare glimpse into the private world of upper-class Egyptian Muslim women’s lives at the turn of the twentieth century. What complicates the project is that Shaarawi did not write a cohesive, chronological narrative, but instead produced memoirs in the form of a collection of ideas and thoughts. As such, a direct translation would have left them difficult to follow, even with the proper context, and thus Badran takes the texts and exercises her editorial judgment by organizing the content and leaving out repetitive or confusing elements. The remainder of the material relates to Badran’s goal of showing what life was like in the private sphere of women such as Shaarawi, and how that might have influenced the subject’s later forays into feminism. This book, therefore, should be approached as a curated primary source with a defined objective, rather than a raw translation that leaves itself open to anyone’s interpretation.

The translator’s introduction provides the necessary context for the text and is accessible in a way that caters to scholars and casual readers alike. It provides sufficient detail for those unfamiliar with Egypt and its early feminist movement to understand Shaarawi’s memoirs, but does not go into excessive detail. Following this are four sections organized chronologically, but also by theme. The first, “Family,” is only 10 pages and introduces her closest relatives, who will play important roles in the rest of the narrative.

The second section, “Childhood in the Harem”, is where the recollections begin to reveal the hidden parts of the upper-class sphere and what life was like. As one might expect, it focuses heavily on her family life, including her childhood betrothal and marriage, but also highlights private cultural elements of the book’s eponymous “harem” life. Her relationship to her husband at this stage is not overly fleshed out, but there is enough to lead us to the third part, “A Separate Life”, which chronicles her years apart from her husband. Here, the narrative focuses less on the general cultural sphere and more on the influences and circumstances that led Sharaawi to become involved in feminism.

In the fourth section, Sharaawi returns to her husband and the reader is brought back to the private life of the “harem”. We do get some recollections about further influences to her feminism, but the translated portion concludes with the end of World War I, and thus most of her engagement with nationalism is left out. Instead, Badran provides an epilogue that offers snippets of Sharaawi’s fragmented memoirs about the period from 1919 through 1924. This chapter provides an account of Sharaawi’s involvement in the nationalist movement, peppered with just enough historical context to make the story cohesive.

One concern with this translation is, because it is curated, it is difficult to analyze the meaning behind what is omitted from the text, as it is not clear if parts are not present due to editorial oversight. For example, are some of the details about her marriage missing because she chose not to write about them, or because Badran decided that they should not be included? Some footnotes on omissions might have been useful. Thus, while Harem Years provides interesting insight into the culture of this era, particularly for more casual readers, it is could be limiting for academic study. It also does not contain much material about the main thrust of her feminist activities, which admittedly are well-covered in other sources and largely absent from the original memoirs. Regardless of any shortcomings, however, Shaarawi’s memoirs themselves would be difficult, if not impossible, to access in their unedited form, and thus Badran’s work allows the reader a better look into Shaarawi’s life than we might otherwise be privileged to experience. ...more

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Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup by Paul Michael Brannagan

Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup: Politics, Controversy, Change
by Paul Michael Brannagan

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Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup was published the same year as its eponymous event, but before the Cup was actually held. As such, it does not serve as a retrospective of the games, but as a summary of the discourse surrounding them before they wer Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup was published the same year as its eponymous event, but before the Cup was actually held. As such, it does not serve as a retrospective of the games, but as a summary of the discourse surrounding them before they were held, although it does also look forward to suggest directions that Qatar could go after its hosting. Thus this book was meant to be something for academics to read before the World Cup to help direct their analyses and contextualize what they were seeing. This does not mean that it contains no value for the reader three years on, as its collection of resources and ideas remain valuable, particularly its desire to place popular criticism of the venue into the context of scholarly analysis while still remaining more-or-less accessible to non-specialist readers. It is, however, important for potential readers to understand the limitations of what the text attempts to accomplish.

For a modern academic work, the book is relatively short, consisting of an introduction and four additional chapters. The introduction provides context on Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup and highlights how popular publications have identified several controversies with Qatar earning the rights, including its lack of a true football culture, accusations of bribery, and human rights complaints about working conditions. These problems contrast Qatar’s broader objectives, which is to use the hosting of the World Cup to enhance its international image. The introduction then sets out its theoretical framework, which is not overly dense by academic standards but might bog down a more casual reader, and then outlines the structure of the remainder of the book.

The authors’ second chapter focuses on the historical background and is fairly straightforward, giving the reader context on how the nation of Qatar emerged and what it is seeking from a global perspective. Essentially, Qatar’s goals are to establish a role for itself in international affairs to ensure its security against its neighbors and to have “an independent foreign policy” that does not always align with the rest of the Gulf region. Chapter three looks at how the nation attempts to accomplish this through sport, engaging the conception of “soft power”, or using cultural products to grow one’s influence rather than the “hard power” of military might. It then narrows to the case of Qatar and how its hosting of the 2022 World Cup fits into this scheme, and what benefits it might obtain from doing so.

Having explored the positive potential of soft power, the authors change direction in chapter four to examine its potential pitfalls. In the case of Qatar, they highlight the new global scrutiny it experienced following the hosting announcement. The authors highlight the three “controversies” from the introduction that were amplified by global media: human rights, corruption, and the nation’s unsuitability to host a major sporting event. While these concerns are not downplayed, the authors do note that this criticism has resulted in Qatar addressing some of the issues, most notably improving the human rights situation, and thus the backlash has had some positive outcomes for the country. Nonetheless, at least in the leadup to the World Cup, this has not changed the hegemonic media narrative.

The final chapter explores what the authors feel will happen with Qatar once it hosts the Games and, to avoid speculation, proposes three considerations for the nation that will help it benefit from hosting: running the event successfully, maintaining its historically independent foreign policy, and continuing domestic reforms. While the study cannot be predictive, it highlights these paths as lenses through which the event can be studied once it is held to gauge its efficacy as a soft power tool. Overall, this is the purpose of Qatar and the 2022 World Cup and where it is most successful: establishing foundations for academic engagement with its eponymous subject. As such, it remains a handy reference for those interested in the event in the aftermath. It does seems at times like it was rushing to be published, and this can make it feel as if there are oversights and oversimplifications, but scholars interested in related topics will likely find it accessible and useful, even if it has been surpassed by other publications as intended. ...more

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