Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present

Power, Faith and Fantasy is an excellent history of the interaction between the US and the Middle East since our nation's founding, resting on those three themes as the appropriate paradigms through which to interpret that interaction. The history can be roughly broken up into three phases. The first is the Barbary Wars where out Nation found it's strength (as well as it's Navy) and much of it's character in a drawn out, and often meandering, struggle against Muslim pirates. The second is a long period from the end of the Barbary Wars to World War I, which is characterized almost exclusively by the efforts of private missionaries travelling far and wide across the Middle East to bring the word of Christ, as well as more pedestrian tourism. The missionaries efforts at proselytizing were almost universally a failure, but they did leave behind a large number of relatively sophisticated schools and universities which were unknown in the Middle East at the time and later became the fountains of power for the Arab Nationalism movement. Both the missionaries and the tourists however generally returned home disappointed by the whole experience. The Middle East remained a place that promised so much but delivered so litte. The last, "modern," phase of the history stretches essentially from World War I to now. The watershed event of this period was the collapse of the Ottoman Empire which eliminated any sizable, coherent Muslim power in the world, a first since the Caliphate was founded over a thousand years ago. For me this period was the most relevant, although the previous two were certainly very interesting. At the end of World War I the victors proceeded to thoroughly "lose the peace" in the middle east, promising freedom -which so many there thirsted for after living under the generally unwanted yoke of the Turkish Ottomans- but delivering colonialism instead. This poured anti-western fuel onto the fires of both the reactionary / fundamentalist Islam being espoused by Wahabbi mosques and others, and the countervailing, secular nationalist movements at home in the schools founded by the American missionaries. Through a long series of events, -the introduction of Israel and muslim intolerance of it, continued western meddling such as the Anglo-French-Israeli Suez Crisis, the failure of Middle Eastern governments to adapt to the modern world, and the collapse of Arab nationalism which adopted the unworkable theory of socialism as their mantra- the Middle East never achieved any of the dreams that its various inhabitants saw as eerily within grasp following the end of WWI, be it freedom, Arab unity, or the re-emergence of an Islamic power reformed from the corrupt and backward Ottoman Empire. This has led to an inexorable slide into the Middle East we find today, a corrupt thugocracy whose people are unfortunately turning increasingly towards radical islam as their savoir and the outlet of their anger now that the alternate (and false) hope of Nationalist inspired Socialism evaporated into failure, and post colonial freedom has proven to be a chimerical mirage. While much of the Middle East's problems have been intensified by outside interference, more of them have been home grown. It is a place that for both internal and external reasons has never experienced real freedom. We now stand at an extremely pivotal moment in the history of not only the region and our nation but the world. After a long a bewildering history of interaction between America and the Middle East our relations have reached their zenith, with an American led liberation of Iraq that has brought the first chance of real freedom to the Middle East while at the same time teetering on the brink of occupation through mistakes and incompetence. The Middle East is now walking a deadly tightrope between radical Islam on the one side and American inspired freedom on the other. America walks a similar tightrope, between facing the bloody and expensive proposition of spreading of our ideals into the region -with the sobering realization that this won't necessarily bring peace or friendship towards us-, or falling back to a diplomatic preference for a farcical and self serving "stability" in the region which has marked our relations with the region from 1945 to 2003 -hopefully with the equally sobering realization that this has contributed immensely to the current woes of the region that spilled over onto our shores on 9/11. Michael B. Oren's book is an amazing and extensive tour of the history of the Middle East, how America has interacted with it, and how we have gotten to the situation outlined above. His writing style is fast and fluid, and while the middle half of the book gets bogged down a good deal, it is truly useful reading for anyone trying to understand what is going on in the Middle East today and trying to figure out what we should be doing in kind. Highly recommended.

Power, Faith, and Fantasy is a strong 4, weak 5 star book. Oren does an excellent job going over the history and bringing events together in a natural way, but Oren really centers his efforts on the founding of Israel and the frustrations of American presidents after that founding in balancing the, often contradictory, interests of oil, fighting the Commies, defense of Israel, and still promoting democracy and human rights in the region (usually in that order). What I found most interesting was the extent of American travels in the region and our general prestige in the area to a certain extent. The history of educational institutions founded by Americans and the relatively good natured religious missionary presence goes much longer back, essentially to the late 1700s, than I would have thought. The frequency of minor military excursions into the region I also found fascinating, and was a different aspect of seeing them all compiled in the same book as opposed to reading about them separately. Also interestingly, it is astonishing how quickly the animosity is shifted from the British/French/Imperialists is turned toward the US following the end of WWII and founding of Israel. This is common knowledge almost now, but actually remarkable given our 'footprint' in the region compared to hundred years ago (imagine, a US army occupying Egypt now). While US has certainly had its adventures in the region, they are nothing compared to the European incursions as late as 50 years ago (except Iraq, as it turns out). I did find the book to be frustrating on some topics though. For example, following the Holocaust there were floods of refugees trying to leave Germany. Oren discusses the challenges in finding homes for them all, but doesn't discuss why the US, considered a favored spot for many Jewish refugees (second only to Palestine), was still under immigration quotas and only allowed in a trickle of all displaced persons needing a new home. This is a big point, and one must wonder what would become of the Zionist movement, and the founding of Israel in particular, if the US were more willing to welcome Jewish displaced persons. Maps were oddly lacking for a book on the Middle East. There were only 2-3 in the first few pages as reference, and were quickly forgotten. For a region that sees considerable changes in territory and control, sometimes differing from year to year, it was frustrating to not be able to follow changes as closely as I would have liked. The book largely focuses around Israel, and the founding of it is really seen as a changing point and climax for the book, or at least the event where everything pivots. While not necessarily a bad thing, to title the book "America in the Middle East," and then focus so much on the Zionist movement and Israel, I had to change my expectations for the book. On buying the book, I was hoping to learn more about American involvement in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. There was some of this in there, but it seemed to be of secondary importance to Israel. In the end, it really is a fantastic book, but left some minor questions that should have been explored by the author but for some reason weren't. But to say it covers all the Middle East is not entirely accurate. There is some discussion, and the last chapters go president by president in interactions with the Mid East, but not in depth (which, come to think of it, even the author admits in the opening chapter).

For anyone interested in an overview of U.S. involvement in the Middle East that incorporates a great deal of insight into the personalities of those involved - this is your book. I personally enjoyed all of the details provided on the leaders and significant personalities throughout the Middle East - this gave me insight into the type of people and perspectives that U.S. leaders have had to deal with as they navigated the complex range of Middle East issues. A very interesting read - I found this book to be a page-turner and very informative at the same time. You come away with a great overview of our involvement in the Middle East both politically and militarily and gives a great perspective on the role that missionaries have played in our involvement in the Middle East. I came away with several areas that I now want to explore in greater detail that I probably would not have thought about without reading this book.

Michael Oren does a good job in two fronts: 1. Fills a vacuum in history for most Americans and for that matter, and particularly, for most Muslims. 2. As a historian, needed to respect facts over entertainment, I think he achieves both goals fairly well. If asked, most people would date the relations between Americans and the Middle East to the last few decades. As Oren explains, nothing is farther from the truth. The relationship has certainly changed, but it has always been there. Initially through missionaries, merchants and explorers, and lately diplomatically and militarily. This relationship, according to Oren has quite often been one-sided. After failing to convert Muslims, Americans established Universities and institutions that helped Middle Easterners integrate to modern life, often with great success. In many ways, some aspects of this relationship has not changed. While the UK was paying "protection" money to the Barbary states so they would not attack their ships, when America became independent, its commercial ships became targets of the same pirates. The decision of whether to pay or fight was not an easy one, and in many ways reflects similar more recent situations. In any event, few people know that Tripoli (the Barbary States) was the first entity to declare war to America back in 1801. Oren uses three elements to explain this relationship: Power, Faith and Fantasy. The increased power that America wielded is obviously a factor that plays a central role, but very different from the one wielded by the Europeans, who always saw in the Middle East a source for their resources. It can be said that more often than not, the US applied force was to rescue or improve the lives of Muslims. Faith also played a central role in two ways. On one hand, missionaries risked everything to spread their faith and saw in the Holy Land a place whose rightful owner were the Jews. At the state level, Oren describes the decision making process of several US presidents, who often had to find a balance between pragmatism and beliefs. The aspect that can arguably explain the US-Middle East relationship is what Oren calls Fantasy, represented in literature, movies and initially in international expositions. Oren argues that art reflects the perception that Americans have of the Middle East. Initially remote and sensuous, and more recently, permeated with fanaticism and terror. One can argue that a movie about terrorism as a historic document doesn't have much value, but Oren is out there to put some "salt" on something that has been cooked already with facts, and that makes it more interesting. Perhaps where the book is not as objective is in the more recent history. The author over-emphasizes the importance Arabs give to the presence of Israel in the Middle East as a source of many of the grievances. Since it was written before the "Arab Spring," it is clear to many that the biggest problems of Arabs and Muslims is not external, that their sufferings are often self-inflicted, and that they have forgotten what Americans have done for them in over 200 years. All in all, it's an easy reading for people interested in understanding a region that like it or not, in our time has become our virtual neighbor.

From the founding of the USA in 1776 and the Ottoman Empire to today's Middle East, Oren writes clearly and compellingly about the USA and that area of the world. The detail is illuminating, the dispassionate scholarly approach is welcome, (there appears no political bias). It would be hard to imagine a better written or more complete history of the US and its continued involvement in the region. From the Ottoman Empire to its collapse in WWI, the ensuing colonial establishment by Europe and Russia, the massive need of the world for the oil of the region, the fated rise of Zionism, the battle waged to keep Russia from gaining control, the fall of secular control and the rise of fundamental Islam in many states, the continued failure despite so many efforts to bring peace to the area, the upsurge in militant Islam and the attacks on the USA and Europe, are all written about with enough detail to give the reader a clear sense of the continuing themes which reveal themselves and the very difficult challenges all American presidents since Wilson have had there. From WWII's end to today, all the names and events are woven into a very readable narrative. Any reader will be far better informed as a reward for 604 pages of text and the 128 pages of reference material to support the work. As at the ball park, you can't know the game without the program. This is a big help.

Why is the United States in the Middle East? According to this tome it is based on a three prong theme dominated by the most noble cause of faith while also supported by fantasy and established by power. I accept the last theme, "established by power", but in my humble opinion, the United States motivation for Middle East hegemony is Oil, Oil, and More Oil. This book tries to put a very pious spin on a United States foreign policy that is truly based simply on economics and politics. I am sure anyone can apply the same three prong theme the author uses to describe U.S. involvement in sub-Sahara Africa - but the results are quite different. Unfortunately, trying to overlook the obvious, the author cannot disguise his very biased viewpoint in much of the narrative. For me, there were also many quotes and references in the work that were left unexplained and without supporting notes. There were several instances where the author quotes some dialog but the quote is not referenced properly in the narrative nor the bibliographic notes. It led me to believe that the author himself was making the quote; but an author in third person narrative does not enclose his own thoughts in quotes! I must also offer my opinion on the author's writing style. The style for some will be edifyingly eloquent but others may find it utterly pretentious. I personally wish the author had spent more time with his research notes than with a thesaurus. Maybe some of the unexplained quotes and references would be more thoroughly detailed. In the end, I did find the book informative especially considering the substantial timeframe and material the author decided to cover. There were many snippets of information that I found extremely interesting. It is worth a read if you have time but I caution the reader to use this work as an overview on the subject and keep in mind that in many instances the narrative viewpoint is very biased.

Oren fills in a gap in our knowledge of U.S. history. In an interesting and flowing narrative, he traces U.S. involvement in the Middle East from the end of the Revolutionary War (and the Barbary pirates) to the present. He supports his narrative with 150 pages of footnotes. It must have taken him many years to put together the pieces of this story. It is a compelling book that is hard to put down because you keep saying to yourself, "I didn't know that...And what happened next?" It's a yellow-highlighter book that must be read in many sittings. A main focus is the general lack of military involvement of the U.S. until the early 1980s, mostly because the U.S. purposefully tried to stay neutral in the ME and wanted to avoid confrontations. Various presidents, private individuals, missionaries, and government staff promoted various views over two centuries; thus, the U.S. often contradicted itself in its efforts to help Middle Eastern peoples achieve independence. It had to work with colonial Britain and France, prevent the Cold War Soviets from controlling the ME, adjust to various views on the Jews finding a homeland, and keep the doors open to trade. The U.S. developed from a country without any power and no navy to a major player, a fulcrum that tried to balance the vested interests and power of various countries. Oren works hard to reinforce his theme of power, faith, and fantasy, but overworks the theme in the last one-third of the book. He doesn't seem to take sides in historical recounting with the exception, possibly, of his views of recent events in the Middle East; these last pages are almost a tacked-on summary, necessarily incomplete and selective.

The author defiantly has excellent writing skill and its more than evident in this book. While some history books tend to have a robotic and/or textbook feel to them, this book does not. It is extremely well written and each sentence runs smooth such that you do don't want to put down the book. The author clearly has a paramount amount of research on this topic with the 130pages of works cites. If you interested in US-Middle east relations then this book is a good start. The only knockdown that I have is how religious (particularly to Judaism) the book seems to be. It's to the point where I wonder if it's more perception rather than truth. Nevertheless, the hard facts about the US and the Middle East make this book a good read.

For a long time I have wondered about the link between Middle East and America, surely it can not be all hatred? This is an amazing book which is well thoroughly researched. The contribution of Islam goes to the core of the American constitution "all men are equal" a passage from the Quran. If the Muslim could receive America with an open arm after its independence from the British rule, the geopolitics of the world would have been shaped differently. Instead of promoting north African pirates if the Ottoman had a professional navel the Mediterranean would have had a different story to tell. The Arabs blame America as bias towards Israel, it was the ability of the American Jews to broker deals between USA and Middle East that handed the Jews with a powerful influence in American foreign policies. If anything Ottoman arrogance is to blame for much of the double standards that is often the accusation made towards the west. What this book does is explains brilliantly fact that are not known and only now is being revealed to the world What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response An Englishman in Riyadh

Highly recommended and comprehensive read by an ace historian.

AWESOME

Michael Oren is very good. he make you feel like in the place. He gives you all information regarding the issue. when he writes make you have a sensation that you are in the story.

Michael Oren does a phenomenal job of researching and describing in vivid detail the historical events during the Ottoman Empire, in showing the roots of Muslim intolerance toward the West, and the early roots of terrorism, and the East's rejection of the West. In line with other great Historians on the clash of Muslim Countries with Judeo-Christian based ones, like Bernard Lewis' work.