The Crisis of Islam

There are few more erudite or more understandable writers on the topic of Islam than Princeton historian Bernard Lewis. While not a professional narrator, he is clearly comfortable in the lecture hall or classroom. In addition to the program's brevity, the great thing about listening is being able to hit the rewind button to pause and consider. There's a wealth of information, and listeners will come away with an illuminating understanding of events leading up to 9/11. This should be mandatory listening for anyone who wants a more complete grasp of world events as they stand between the Middle East and the U.S. Crisis is perhaps a much overused word to be sure, but it is never so apt as now. D.G. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

March 1, 2003
This lean, muscular volume, an expansion of Lewis's George Polk Award-winning New Yorker article, sheds much-needed light on the complicated and volatile Middle East. To locate the origins of anti-American sentiment, Islamic scholar Lewis maps the history of Muslim anxiety towards the West from the time of the Crusades through European imperialism, and explains how America's increased presence in the region since the Cold War has been construed as a renewed cry of imperialism. In Islam, politics and religion are inextricable, and followers possess an acute knowledge of their own history dating back to the Prophet Mohammed, a timeline Lewis revisits. By so doing, the bestselling author of What Went Wrong? is able to cogently investigate key issues, such as why the United States has been dubbed the "Great Satan" and Israel the "Little Satan," and how Muslim extremism has taken root and succeeded in bastardizing the fundamental Islamic tenets of peace. Lewis also covers the impact of the Iranian Revolution and American foreign policy towards it, Soviet influence in the region and the ramifications of modernization, making this clear, taut and timely primer a must-read for any concerned citizen.