Study Guide: Meyer-Brysac
Text: Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, The Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East. New York (Norton, 2008)
We will use the book according to the outline below. Note the links to additional resources for each section and to pertinent blog archive categories at the right of the page:
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Colonialism and Drawing the Modern Borders
1. Prologue, 17-28.
2. Ch. 3 – “Dr. Weizmann, It’s a Boy!”: Sir Mark Sykes, 94-126
HMEDB – Click on “Origins of Key Geographical Terms” (in left had Nav Bar).
Colonialism in Africa and the Middle East
Benchmarks in the History of Modern Egypt
Safavid and Ottoman Period; World War I and the Early Mandate Period; Later Mandate Period
Persecution of Jews in Western history and origins of Zionism
See also “On Nations and States” post
Formation of Jordan and Palestine
1. Ch. 8, “A Splendid Little Army”: Glubb Pasha, 259-292
Note on the Anglo-American Commission of 1946, the object of Glubb’s little rhyme on p. 260
An ‘Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry ‘ visited Palestine in 1946. It recommended the distribution of 100,000 additional immigration certificates to Jews living in European refugee camps who wished to settle in Palestine. Furthermore, it recommended the lifting of land sale restrictions imposed in the 1939 White Paper. As for the future sovereignty over Palestine, the committee was intentionally ambiguous, a position that pleased no one. Arabs responded by holding a summit on May 28 that announced its intention to resist the recommendation of the Anglo-American committee to open the doors to further Jewish immigration into Palestine. (Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Third Edition (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), 131)
Albert Hourani, who later became an esteemed historian, was serving as a representative of the Arab Agency when he testified before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry that “‘no room can be made in Palestine for a second nation except by dislodging or exterminating the first.’” (quoted in Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Third Edition (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), 130.) Zionist leader Chaim Weizman agreed, although he drew a different conclusion on what the course of action ought to be.
More at the HMEDB -
World War I and the Early Mandate Period
Modern Iraq
1. Ch. 4, The Acolyte: A. T. Wilson, 127-156
2. Ch. 5, “Dreadfully Occupied in Making Kings and Governments”: Gertrude Bell, 157-192
3. Ch. 6, The Frenzy of Reknown: T. E. Lawrence, 193-225
4. Ch. 12, The Man Who Knew Too Much: Paul Wolfowitz, 381-410
More at HMEDB -
Benchmarks in the History of Iraq
Project for the New American Century (1997)
The United States in the Middle East
Iran
1. Ch. 9, A Very British Coup: General Ironside and the Three Percys, 293-321
2. Ch. 10, The Quiet American: Kermit Roosevelt, 322-347
More at HMEDB -
Lord George Curzon and the “great game”
Curzon commenting on the Anglo-Persian Agreement (1919)
The United States in the Middle East
Egypt, Syria, Lebanon
1. Ch. 1, The Proconsul: Lord Cromer, 29-58
2. Ch. 11, The Apprentice Sorceror: Miles Copeland, 348-380
More at HMEDB -
The Dinshawi (“Danishway”) Incident (1906)
Saudi Arabia
1. Ch. 7, The Apostate: H. S. J. B. Philby, 226-258
More at HMEDB -
The United States in the Middle East
