I would like to start out by saying that I am a huge fan of Bernard Lewis. All of his books I have gotten my hands on thus far have been superb and this is no exception. In this case, Lewis opted to collect various writings and excerpts showing the interplay between the Middle East and the "west". After starting out with misconceptions and prejudices (on both sides), he goes on to show differing views on travel, government, society, arts, science and even food and drink. Interestingly enough, relatively little focused on the early period, despite the immense glory of Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia and other Middle Eastern nations. There is a great deal of historical material though, including the early Islamic era, the Byzantine Empire and even the Roman Empire. Much of the material focused on the last few centuries though, which I suppose is natural given the increased contact between Europe and the Middle East. The sources come from a truely vast array. There are excerpts from the Qu'ran and the Bible, as well as sayings attributed to the Prophet Mohammad. These stand beside the works of Shakespeare, commentary by T.E. Lawerence ("Lawerence of Arabia") and Sir Richard Francis Burton, and messages delivered by Imam Khomeini. However, not all historical figures would be so well known to western ears. Excerpts from the great traveller ibn Battuta and the historian/philosopher ibn Khaldun also appear here. The vast amount of events and places is astounding. It records the Ottoman Empire at its height (indeed, many of the excerpts do deal with the Ottoman Turks), Napolean's entering north Africa, the Crimean War and the Crusades. Indeed, theres a small selection of passages dealing with the Assassin sect, of which Lewis has written an entire book. In addition, theres even a few pages which give some examples of words of Arabic, Turkish and Persian origin which have made their way into the English language.
The sheer volume of material contained within this book is simply amazing. Although they don't give as much information as one might like, the passages, excerpts and quotes included in this book provide windows into Middle Eastern life and history. Ultimately, I must strongly recommend that any student of Middle Eastern or Islamic history at least give this book a look. You won't regret it.

I love this book. You read main primary sources from the last 2000 years, reflecting on West Europe-Islamic Asia/Africa relations and perceptions. The book can be read eclectically. It shed lights on how things were, and how they led us to where we are today!

Dr. Lewis has written yet another informative compilation about the Middle East. I only wish that he could have included more about Sultan Bayezid II and his acceptance of the Spanish Jews expelled by Ferdinand and Isabel; the Afghan Jewish community in Herat; or the travels of Joseph Wolf, 1795-1862.

THE COMPLETE WILD BODY is the first in a long list, republished by Black sparrow Press, of exemplary essential modernistic landmarks on the road of excessive self-discovery by THE ENEMY, Wyndham Lewis his-self. To give you an inkling of the kind of bombastic verbiage that riddles this prose like so many death-traps: "To introduce my puppets, and the Wild Body, the generic puppet of all, I must project a fanciful wandering figure to be the showman to whom the antics and solemn gambols of these wild children are to be a source of strange delight."

The literary Lion here roars loudly somewhat unbecoming of English gentlemanry, which is exactly the vorticist point right in the center of this bull's eye Wyndham Lewis slays exactly all we ever thought refined and full of polite mannerisms in modern society. "tyros" accompany on canvas these stories of his, for Wyndham Lewis is one of the greatest painters of modernism as well as author, being the founder of VORTICISM, the only avant-garde movement of 20th century Britain; likewise he influenced and intellectually ruled and/or fascinated Pound, Eliot, Joyce, Stein,et.al.etc., and a slew of lesser-known (unjustifiably) Artists circa (roughly) the turn of the century to the dropping of the atom bomb. His Art like his life was lived under the persona of the enemy and his condemnation was indeed high praise in that he deemed whomever worthy of his intellectual onslaught. His graphic works brilliantly illustrate the volume and compliment the tales that smack of a science-fictive otherworldliness but are entirely realistic, to the extensive degree as to be super- realism (surrealism); especially in consideration that all the characters are mere auotmatons executing their behaviour patterns as if ordered to do so by some outside force of cosmic porportions. Not to say they are dull and predictable, not in any absolute sense; Ker-Orr is our adventuer, a "soldier of humour" in a very pataphysical sense, whose definition is the "science of imaginary solutions". Conjured up as by tricks is an entire situational reality where the narrator is faced with human mimickery and acts, deified with a strict militant stance,according to a system of beliefs prescribed by "inferior religions". Lewis rewrote/re-worked the stories twenty years plus later and tells us all he did in these pioneering myths he's still exhausting philosophically. The stories are replete with all the enthusiasm of a young artist forgeing new worlds in a time of intense innovation, and of all his myriad works, this book is my and many others favorite; I consider it one of the ten greatest books- among 50 plus boxes -I own. I would be-deck it with the constellations entire, not just five dim suns, which is not enough illuminism to shed lite on the innumerable profoundities barely contained herein.

While Joyce was still working on traditional prose in The Dubliners and Eliot hadn't entered his Waste Land, Wyndham Lewis wrote a series of short stories that shattered expectations of english writing. A correspondent of Pound, Eliot, Yeats and Joyce, Lewis was too prickly a personality to be accepted into the canon as they were. As with many great writers his achievement was too difficult and uncomfortable for society to accept. This collection prints the 9 stories about life in the Breton countryside as they were collected in 1927 and then follows them with the originally published stories from which they were revised. The prose still feels entirely new and strange, and, unlike most contemporary writing that tries to achieve that status, it is both entertaining and theoretically astute.

Even though his scholarship is over one hundred years old, Goldziher's scholarship still remains relevant and in use. A parallel could be drawn between the continued importance of Albert Schweitzer's work on NT studies and the continued legacy of Goldziher. This edition of the work is nicely translated and well edited and belongs in the library of anyone interested in Islamic Studies. Along with Muslim Studies, this work remains as an historical monument marking the beginning of modern historical skepticism and critical scholarship towards the Muslim jurisprudential literature.

Ignaz Goldziher is a pioneer Islamicists whose views have still not yet been outdated despite new discoveries. An essential read for those who want to have an outsider's opinion on the beliefs and jurisprudence of the religion of Islam.

This is the best book available on linear FM pulse compression and coherent sidelobe cancelllation written by the inventors of the polyphase P4 codes and digital (Gramm-Schmidt) CSLC. A must have for anyone in the field of radar signal processing!

fydh tujtu jetyu jty ryujkry fyukfgjh truytru rytuk ryu tyui

This book is a definitely very important scientific resources to understand roots of current problems of Balkans and Middle-east. Today, mounting micro-identities are being perceived as a new danger for world peace. Some aspects of pessimist theories like Clash of Civilizations unfortunately have been approved all around the world as in Bosnia, Kosova, and Iraq. Most of the trouble areas have interesting common point. They all have an Ottoman background. Beyond doubt, neither Middle East, nor Balkans could solve their domestic problems after collapse of the Ottomans. These areas have very complex ethnic and religious structure and even a little problem could easily trigger a chain reaction. Thus, It is so important to clarify the historical background of this area to solve the current problems. If so, how did Ottomans could manage to rule these high-risk areas for almost 500 years in a very peaceful manner? This book is explaining us the administration system of minorities in Ottoman Empire. This system is also worth to learn as a tested example for today's all multi-cultural sociaties. This book is containing all aspects of this subject and enlightening them objectively. So it is obviously worth to read.

Lewis, in the Second Edition of the Culture of Inequality, makes the reader uncomfortable: can I, a well intentioned person, help ease the consequences of persistent, harmful inequalities in the US? A careful reading of this rich, deep description of "our town" will most likely generate a sense of futility -- the type that makes it even more important to look for all the ways that policy makers, teachers, parents, or anyone with influence can work to avoid contributing to the reproduction of inequality. No town, no city, no social institution, and no geographic area is immuned to the "culture" of inquality. Moreover, individuals and groups engage in everyday behaviors, and even everyday thinking, that help to maintain the culture of inequality.

Charles Tilly(1998)in Durable Inequality gives the reader a detailed and complex theory to explain persistent social inequalities across time, nations, and cultures. Michael Lewis puts Tilly's theory into action. He brings it to real life, using examples we all recognize. In a study of one ordinary place, Professor Lewis makes us wish that his study is, or could be dated. It is such a shame to realize that it isn't.

JoAnn Miller Associate Professor of Sociology Purdue University

As Professor Lewis states in the Preface to the second edition of this work, "Islam in History" is a collection of thirty-two articles on Islam. Anybody wishing to gain some understanding of this very important, very misunderstood, and very troubled civilization, should read this book. Lewis, once again, provides the reader with a magnificent work that is not pedantic but instructive, that does not belittle its subject nor its audience, and that demonstrates how necessary true scholarship is, particularly in times such as these.

The book is divided into eight parts: Western Approaches, Muslim History and Historians, Muslims and Jews, Turks and Tatars, In Black and White, History and Revolution, New Ideas, and New Events. Since this new edition dates from 1993, the recent developments in the world should not be expected. However, I really meant it when I wrote that true scholarship is necessary in our world: in the last essay of this volume, Lewis writes that there have been basically two atitudes from Muslims to confront the problems of the Islamic/Arab world (he does not deal with the East-Asian Mulims, like Indonesians and Malaysians, because he admits that he does not know much about them), divided into two questions. The first one is "What did we do wrong?" The second is "Who did this to us?" The first question leads to the search for solutions. The second question, and this deserves to be quoted at length, "leads to delusions and fantasies and conspiracy theories--indeed, the most dangerous enemies of the Muslim peoples at this time are those who assure them that in all their troubles the fault is not in themselves but in open or occult hostile forces. Such beliefs can only lead to resentment and frustration, to an endless, useless succession of bigots and tyrants and to a role in world history aptly symbolized by the suicide bomber. In the first of these questions ["What did we do wrong?], for those who have the courage to ask it, and the vision to answer, lies hope for the future and for a new dawn of Muslim creativity."

Professor Lewis wrote those lines in 1993, but they are as relevant today as if he had written them on September 12, 2001. In fact, the last number of "The Atlantic Monthly" has an article by Professor Lewis where he presents this basic premise once more, since it was true a decade ago and it is true today.

I cannot recommend Bernard Lewis's books strongly enough. This one, as all his other books that I have read, is erudite, informative, interesting, serious, entertaining and, above all, important. If you have never read anything by him, but are interested in this book, read his recent article in "The New Yorker" ("The Revolt of Islam"), and the already mentioned article in "The Atlantic." Those articles will serve as an Introduction to "Islam in History." Bernard Lewis is an extraordinary scholar, and we are lucky to have him with us.

Starting in 1976, Edward Said has argued that Western scholars of the Middle East are continuing "an unbroken tradition in European thought of profound hostility, even hatred, toward Islam," and he singles out Bernard Lewis as their de facto leader. Strangely, when Lewis in turn argued in favor of the Orientalist tradition - that unique effort by members of one civilization to understand the outside world in depth - his colleagues with near-unanimity abandoned him. Still, the battle is not entirely over. While Lewis himself retired from the fray, his highly talented ex-student, Martin Kramer continues the not-entirely-lonely effort to defend several centuries of Western scholarship on the Middle East.

In The Jewish Discovery of Islam, Kramer takes as his starting point several comments by Lewis about the important role of Jews in developing nineteenth-century European attitudes toward the Middle East and Islam, then asks: Did Jews actually made a distinct contribution to the Western discovery of Islam? His reply - and that of his nine contributing authors - is a resounding yes. He and they argue that nineteenth-century Jews found in the Muslim world a model directly relevant to their current situation. Looking about for arguments to bolster their case to join the mainstream of European life, they pointed to Islamic civilization at its height as to show the benefits of integrating Jewry. This in turn meant they had to prove that Baghdad and Cordoba represented peaks of human achievement.

These "pro-Islamic Jews" routed the opposition and their empathetic, sympathetic approach rules the roost today. Kramer's book has many implications: By showing that the main Orientalist tradition derived far more from sympathetic Jewish approach than from the hostile Christian one, it devastates Said's grand theory of Orientalism. It establishes that recent Western attitudes to the outside world - such as the Third-Worldism of the 1960s and the multiculturalism of today - owe their existence in good part to the success of the pro-Islamic Jews' long-ago efforts of humanize Islam. Muslims eventually also picked up on the romantic Jewish myths about Islam and made these a standard part of their own self-image. Finally, Muslims now living in the West owe much to the Jewish scholars who laid the groundwork for their finding an at least partially hospitable reception.

Middle East Quarterly, December 1999

There is not much new that I can add which has not already been said of the Journals. Simply put, fantastic! I have read some excellent books regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but reading the actual journals themselves makes one feel as though they are right there alongside them. Names such as John Colter, the Fields brothers, George Drouillard, Peter Cruzatte, Touissant Charbonneau and his wife Sacajawea, John Ordway, George Shannon, and many of the others in the journal become so familiar, it's as if the reader is a "fly on the saddle" (so to speak) during the entire expedition. Every chapter, every leg of the journey, has something relating to the hardships, sacrifices, conjectures, speculations, survival strategies, Indian confrontations and appropriate manners of behavior, along with wonderful descriptions of landforms, Indian culture, animals, plants, climate, etc. A truly gripping, meaningful look at early western U.S. exploration. DeVoto's introduction and editing is extremely well done.

This is an excellent book. It is hard to imagine the hardship these men had to endure on their trip across the nation, but by reading this book you get some kind of idea. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is even slightly intrested in the history of the Lewis and Clark expedition. This book tells it exactly how it happened, from the men who were there. I strongly believe that books like these should be required reading in schools....who knows what this country would be like today had it not been for those brave men.

Fascinating personal day-by-day account of the journey of Lewis and Clark through the Louisiana Territory. As you read, you feel yourself slowly seeing the American west as it was seen by those who first wrote of its magnificence, the customs of the natives, the wildlife, and climate. You see it for what it was, and for its possibilities. This edition has been edited from the individual journals of both Lewis and Clark and some of the others. It has been made more compact by putting in only passages that tell the story, but with no sentence restructuring or spelling corrections. Sometimes this requires you to figure the meaning out, but is never a big problem. The chapter length was perfect for reading a chapter a day which means 33 days. The only bad chapter was 31, which was a summary of one leg lifted from DeVoto's The Course of Empire, which I felt was harder to understand than the journals. The appendix includes Jefferson's Instructions, list of personnel, and specimens returned.