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Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East
The seeds of conflict in the Middle East were sown in the first sixty years of the twentieth century. It was then that the Western powers - Britain, France and the United States - discovered the imperatives for interventions that have plunged the region into crisis ever since. It was also then that most of the region's modern-day states were created and their regimes forged - their management by the West earned abiding resentment.
Sowing the Wind tells of how and why this happened. The subject is painfully and essentially somber, but Scottish historian John Keay illuminates it with lucid analysis and sparkling anecdotes set within a rich and elegant narrative. This is that rarest of works, a history with humor, an epic with attitude, writing that delights.
Sowing the Wind examines the critical political underpinnings of conflict in the Middle East. Keay (known for his best-selling history of India) focuses on the hard-core countries of the Middle East known as the fertile crescent: Egypt, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Keay’s account is absolutely riveting as he follows the West’s manipulation, management, and mismanagement of the Middle East from 1900 up through the ascent of Arafat to power in the early 1960s. He ends with a forty-page tour-de-force update of the last forty years of American negotiation of economic and political fault lines in the Middle East.
Keay’s sweeping history pre-Balfour to post-Sues unearths a host of surprising firsts, from the Gulf’s first “gusher” to the first aerial assaults on Baghdad, the first of Syria’s innumerable coups, and the first terrorist outrages and suicide bombers.
Little-known figures - junior officers, contractors, explorers, spies - contest the orthodoxies of Arabist giants like T.E. Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Glubb Pasha, and Loy Henderson. The generals - Townshend and Allenby, Gourard and Catroux, Wavell and Spears, Eisenhower and Patton - mingle memorably with maverick travelers and femmes both fatales and formidables. Four Roosevelts juggle with the fates of nations. Authors as alien as E.M. Forster and Arthur Koestler add their testimony.
Pertinent, scholarly, and irreverent, Sowing the Wind provides a uniquely ambitious and enthralling insight into the making of the world’s most fraught arena.
Sowing the Wind tells of how and why this happened. The subject is painfully and essentially somber, but Scottish historian John Keay illuminates it with lucid analysis and sparkling anecdotes set within a rich and elegant narrative. This is that rarest of works, a history with humor, an epic with attitude, writing that delights.
Sowing the Wind examines the critical political underpinnings of conflict in the Middle East. Keay (known for his best-selling history of India) focuses on the hard-core countries of the Middle East known as the fertile crescent: Egypt, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Keay’s account is absolutely riveting as he follows the West’s manipulation, management, and mismanagement of the Middle East from 1900 up through the ascent of Arafat to power in the early 1960s. He ends with a forty-page tour-de-force update of the last forty years of American negotiation of economic and political fault lines in the Middle East.
Keay’s sweeping history pre-Balfour to post-Sues unearths a host of surprising firsts, from the Gulf’s first “gusher” to the first aerial assaults on Baghdad, the first of Syria’s innumerable coups, and the first terrorist outrages and suicide bombers.
Little-known figures - junior officers, contractors, explorers, spies - contest the orthodoxies of Arabist giants like T.E. Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Glubb Pasha, and Loy Henderson. The generals - Townshend and Allenby, Gourard and Catroux, Wavell and Spears, Eisenhower and Patton - mingle memorably with maverick travelers and femmes both fatales and formidables. Four Roosevelts juggle with the fates of nations. Authors as alien as E.M. Forster and Arthur Koestler add their testimony.
Pertinent, scholarly, and irreverent, Sowing the Wind provides a uniquely ambitious and enthralling insight into the making of the world’s most fraught arena.
506 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
11 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
About the author
John Keay
59 books252 followersJohn Stanley Melville Keay FRGS is an English journalist and author specialising in writing popular histories about India and the Far East, often with a particular focus on their colonisation and exploration by Europeans.
John Keay is the author of about 20 books, all factual, mostly historical, and largely to do with Asia, exploration or Scotland. His first book stayed in print for thirty years; many others have become classics. His combination of meticulous research, irreverent wit, powerful narrative and lively prose have invariably been complimented by both reviewers and readers.
UK-based and a full-time author since 1973, he also wrote and presented over 100 documentaries for BBC Radios 3 and 4 from 1975-95 and guest-lectured tour groups 1990-2000. He reviews on related subjects, occasionally speaks on them, and travels extensively.
John Keay is the author of about 20 books, all factual, mostly historical, and largely to do with Asia, exploration or Scotland. His first book stayed in print for thirty years; many others have become classics. His combination of meticulous research, irreverent wit, powerful narrative and lively prose have invariably been complimented by both reviewers and readers.
UK-based and a full-time author since 1973, he also wrote and presented over 100 documentaries for BBC Radios 3 and 4 from 1975-95 and guest-lectured tour groups 1990-2000. He reviews on related subjects, occasionally speaks on them, and travels extensively.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 6, 2015
An excellent background book for the history of empire in the middle east. Keay takes up the topic from just before WW I, when the Near East was part of the Ottoman Empire. It starts later than the interests the Russian and German Empire had in what is now Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq, and Iran, and takes a view from the British perspective. Egypt was already a British protectorate, and the Suez was the lifeline of Empire.
It proceeds to look at WW I, and the angling of the UK and its competition, mainly France at that time, in claiming this area. Crucial was the Suez Canal, and nearly all the manoeuvring was initially around securing that, and defensible territory around it. Woven in is Zionism, the new importance of oil (almost all sourced from the USA at this time), and the calculations that lead to the formation of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Transjorden. It explains why they look the way they do, and why they contain diverse and contending peoples, instead of having borders that reflect ethnic divisions. (The reason is, of course, that internal conflict meant that there was a justification for continued presence of the Imperial powers, under the Mandate system under the League of nations).
It looks at personalities, and shifts of political realities as the area begin to assert its independence, ant the slow collapse of European empires, and the rise of that of the US. It details the inception of the CIA, and first steps in the early practice of regime change.
It's a very valuable book for anyone wanting background in the complexities of the Middle East, and it is narrated in a lively fashion through the twists and turns, people and ideologies of a fascinating region, and one of great importance today.
It proceeds to look at WW I, and the angling of the UK and its competition, mainly France at that time, in claiming this area. Crucial was the Suez Canal, and nearly all the manoeuvring was initially around securing that, and defensible territory around it. Woven in is Zionism, the new importance of oil (almost all sourced from the USA at this time), and the calculations that lead to the formation of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Transjorden. It explains why they look the way they do, and why they contain diverse and contending peoples, instead of having borders that reflect ethnic divisions. (The reason is, of course, that internal conflict meant that there was a justification for continued presence of the Imperial powers, under the Mandate system under the League of nations).
It looks at personalities, and shifts of political realities as the area begin to assert its independence, ant the slow collapse of European empires, and the rise of that of the US. It details the inception of the CIA, and first steps in the early practice of regime change.
It's a very valuable book for anyone wanting background in the complexities of the Middle East, and it is narrated in a lively fashion through the twists and turns, people and ideologies of a fascinating region, and one of great importance today.
January 1, 2022
This edition from the Folio Society is beautiful and looks fantastic on the shelf.
I'm a bit underwhelmed by the content. Overall a decent history but be prepared for an over-the-top anti-colonial view. There is no doubt colonialism brought terrible things but to pretend it was 100% evil is silly when it brought sanitation, education, roads, and mass communication. The author assassinates the character of most of his fellow-countrymen, and I use this terminology freely in that I noted a few instances where he takes little time to explain who someone is and what they did but makes sure to get his negative comments in on their character along with his brief description of their life's work.
Perhaps the oddest comment: "Yet the captain, with that blinkered ardour of the heavily bearded, pushed on regardless." (Page 179). So we're writing a history of the Middle East and mocking colonialists and people with heavy beards. That's an interesting choice.
I'm a bit underwhelmed by the content. Overall a decent history but be prepared for an over-the-top anti-colonial view. There is no doubt colonialism brought terrible things but to pretend it was 100% evil is silly when it brought sanitation, education, roads, and mass communication. The author assassinates the character of most of his fellow-countrymen, and I use this terminology freely in that I noted a few instances where he takes little time to explain who someone is and what they did but makes sure to get his negative comments in on their character along with his brief description of their life's work.
Perhaps the oddest comment: "Yet the captain, with that blinkered ardour of the heavily bearded, pushed on regardless." (Page 179). So we're writing a history of the Middle East and mocking colonialists and people with heavy beards. That's an interesting choice.
May 5, 2023
This is an incredible book - and will be my go-to recommendation for anyone looking to understand the Middle East.
It's riveting account of the West's manipulation, management, and mismanagement of the Middle East from 1900 up to the early 1960s is filled with prose, humor, and a depth of perspective that contests orthodox accounts. To many Westerners, we only see the highlight reels of history - newspaper headlines, dates, deaths, and little more -- this book pulls back the curtain on what happened before, in-between, and after -- making for a broader narrative that reaches for true understanding.
It's also a book that fundamentally changed my perception of the Israel-Palestine conflict. I'd argue that this book looks at the issue from the perspective of Britain - why they acted as they did? Should they have? And what could they have done differently? While I'll need to read further to understand other players including most importantly the perspectives of the Zionists and the Arabs, this book provided much needed context to one of the most contentious issues of our time.
Only days after reading this book, I saw a documentary on Nasser that had blatant misinformation -- I was able to catch the mistake due to having already read this book and confirm that the book was correct with further research.
It's riveting account of the West's manipulation, management, and mismanagement of the Middle East from 1900 up to the early 1960s is filled with prose, humor, and a depth of perspective that contests orthodox accounts. To many Westerners, we only see the highlight reels of history - newspaper headlines, dates, deaths, and little more -- this book pulls back the curtain on what happened before, in-between, and after -- making for a broader narrative that reaches for true understanding.
It's also a book that fundamentally changed my perception of the Israel-Palestine conflict. I'd argue that this book looks at the issue from the perspective of Britain - why they acted as they did? Should they have? And what could they have done differently? While I'll need to read further to understand other players including most importantly the perspectives of the Zionists and the Arabs, this book provided much needed context to one of the most contentious issues of our time.
Only days after reading this book, I saw a documentary on Nasser that had blatant misinformation -- I was able to catch the mistake due to having already read this book and confirm that the book was correct with further research.
November 6, 2022
I always took Lawrence of Arabia as Gospel.That this is a one sided view only recently occured when I read The Empire Project by John Darwin and examined the Britsh Empire.The middle East is not at all that simple and Keay has disbused me of any romance in the region.I can not say it has the heft of absolute truth but many things are now at least plausibly clear
February 18, 2021
Honestly pretty well written, and probably super interesting to someone who’s more of an History fan, I just got lost with the many names and details.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews