- Destroying Yemen: What Chaos in Arabia Tells Us about the World

A courageous and insightful contribution to the body of scholarly literature covering Yemen's history. Professor Blumi analyzes the Yemeni tradition of independence, resourcefulness and resistance to empire through an in-depth analysis of finance capitalism and its influence on the so-called 'developing' world. This is, in other words, a transnational history, a history highlighting Yemen's struggle against the forces of neo-liberal empire during and after the Cold War. Of course, Blumi credits Yemeni agency, discussing the myriad ways Yemenis negotiated these difficult circumstances to best protect their interests, impacting the wider world as much as the wider world impacted Yemen. Critics and armchair academics, who may or may not have actually read the book, should actually take the time to read through his footnotes-his primary sources are airtight, innovative and compelling. Curious indeed, that the lone negative review failed to offer any substantive critique of the sources, arguments or narratives presented. Grasping the motives and interests driving Saudi Arabia's American backed invasion of this great country necessitates the placement of Yemen in the appropriate transnational context. Utilizing a wide array of English and Arabic primary sources, Blumi uncovers uncomfortable truths about this terrible conflict in his latest book-whether you can confront them is entirely up to you. I highly recommend it.

Isa Blumi has produced a critical and insightful analysis of the differing factors which have brought Yemen to it's current political state bordering on annihilation. His approach is holistic and from a bird's eye view, factoring in both local and national politicking but also including the key determinant of 'globalist' foreign intervention. The empire described by Blumi consists of an elite who utilize a technocratic class of unwitting and ambitious youth at universities who leverage the post-WWII institutions to bring sovereign nations into their orbit. This includes the Bretton Woods institutions, the UN, NGOs, and so on, in the vein of John "The Economic Hitman" Perkins. However, even if one discounts the empire's presence, things wouldn't fare much better as Blumi details the failure of a unified Arab nationalism which instead saw regional Middle Eastern powers decide to seek territorial, irredentist, and economic gains instead of neighborly relation. Add to this multiple Yemeni coups, in-fighting, and the difficulty of navigating such complicated political terrain. Destroying Yemen is an essential text to not only understand the Gulf region and other past (e.g. Libya), present (e.g. Syria), and future (e.g. Iran) wars but to understand the technological and financial levers of the empire and how it is able to systematically disintegrate independent states and reintegrate them into its system of dominance. A must-read!

Powerful and Imperative Read for a tragically over looked crisis.

A harsh reality of the war crimes in Yemen commit by the great Satan USA. It was too depressing to finish.

As the title indicates, the author portrays the recent events in Yemen as "foreign powers trying to starve Yemen into submission”. Indeed, he writes: “What induced the violence since 2015 was an invasion led by Western-backed mercenaries and a native people’s resistance to it. As discussed throughout this book, the violence in Yemen prior to the present war was also the product of considerable foreign intervention’’. Throughout the book, the author uses the term “empire” to represent the global “economic, political, and cultural domination that has reigned supreme since the conclusion of World War II”. The book portrays an epic struggle between empire and the revolutionary people of Yemen. Moreover, it is a battle that the author believes Yemen can win: “Yemen will bend but not break, and still more, Yemenis will prove to be the deadliest, unflagging enemy empire has ever known. And because Yemenis just will not succumb, this war will one day be the point to which empire forever changes and Saudi Arabia itself will disappear”. Apart from being flatly ridiculous, the book is polemical, moralistic, simplistic, and reminiscent of the worst of Trotskyist discourse and conspiracy theories. Published by the University of California Press; what were they thinking? The current situation in Yemen is an appalling human tragedy and Saudi Arabia has acted in an utterly criminal manner. The fact that the US and Britain have both recently signed further arms deals with Saudi Arabia is absolutely shameful. Sadly, nothing positive is likely to come from this woeful book. An informative, intelligent book on Yemen up to 2016 is "Yemen Endures”, by Ginny Hill.

Blumi’s analysis of Yemen's recent history provides a well thought out, in depth, and cogent analysis of what has happened in Yemen as a result of influence from outside powers, all of whom have attempted to assert their control over throughout various periods if Yemen's history. The book turns a critical eye on the place of Western powers like the United States and Britain, and their seemingly never-ending attempts to influence events in the Middle East. Nowhere is this clearer than in the book's treatment of events following 2015. The book will likely make readers in the West somewhat uncomfortable, as it paints a less than idyllic view of the West's role in Yemen and elsewhere in Arabia. However, critical analyses like this provide vital opportunities for reflection on the role of the major superpowers in countries like Yemen, and Blumi allows the reader to see the depth of Western involvement and its effect on the lives of Yemeni civilians.

I have been reading various books on the Middle East, but this was the first book I chose on Yemen, and was with the hopes of understanding the history and current situation of Yemen, however, out of the 200 pages I found about 6 pages of useful information. The other 194 pages were written very emotionally and lacked clarity. A hard writing style to follow, I did not enjoy this book unfortunately.

Great book which highlights many overlooked dimensions in Yemen's current situation

Was hoping for a fresh and different view on what has happened in this country. To me this book is an academic vomit of big words, very difficult to read unless you're a Political Sciences student at Harvard. No real storyline or accounts of recent events, just citations after citations referring to other scholars decertations and essays.

A lire si l'on veut comprendre les véritables enjeux de cette guerre.