Jeremy Bowen's highly acclaimed account of the region he has reported on for more than thirty years - the Middle East.Now in B format.
A vivid and authoritative account of the making of the modern Middle East, from the BBC’s long-serving correspondent in the region.
15th September 2025
Paperback
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
Jeremy Bowen's highly acclaimed account of the region he has reported on for more than thirty years - the Middle East.Now in B format.
A vivid and authoritative account of the making of the modern Middle East, from the BBC’s long-serving correspondent in the region.
Description
NOW UPDATED WITH A NEW CHAPTERA Sunday Times Paperback of the YearA Spectator and New Statesman Book of the Year'An illuminating and riveting read' Jonathan Dimbleby'Arresting . . . excellent, doom-freighted' The TimesJeremy Bowen, the International Editor of the BBC, has been covering the Middle East since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present. In The Making of the Modern Middle East Bowen offers a gripping and invaluable guide, showing how it came to be and what its future might hold.In part based on his acclaimed podcast, 'Our Man in the Middle East', Bowen takes you on a journey across the Middle East and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, and their leaders, whether brutal or benign. He explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control.Clear throughout is Bowen's deep understanding of the political, cultural and religious differences between countries as diverse as Erdogan's Turkey, Assad's Syria, Netanyahu's Israel, and Palestine, whether Hamas-controlled Gaza or the West Bank, and his long experience of covering events in the region.
Critic Reviews
Written with modesty, grace and compassion, his account of 30 years working in the Middle East for the BBC combines his own personal experience with and a rare understanding of what makes this tortured region so dangerously combustible . . . The result is an illuminating and riveting read. -- Jonathan Dimbleby, broadcaster, author and historian
Arresting . . . excellent, doom-freighted -- Justin Marozzi The Times
Bears witness to how lofty dreams of the post-Cold War period crashed and burned . . . with deep empathy and understanding of the roots of the conflict. -- Emma Sky The New Statesman
[A] compelling blend of sweeping history and vivid memoir . . . Bowen paints in the historical background masterfully and manages to convey the pressure, euphoria and horror of war reporting as well. Mail on Sunday
A gripping and compelling account that swings between gut-wrenching eyewitness stories and dispassionate analysis, laying bare the hopes and horrors of the Middle East in the twenty-first century. A remarkable book. -- Professor Eugene Rogan, author of The Arabs: A History
This book is a very personal and erudite history of a troubled region where enemies of impartiality abound, though some don’t even live there. I highly recommend this fascinating book which is also a testament to a better era in journalism. -- Michael Burleigh, author of The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now
This is a wise, compelling, fast-paced book - essential reading if you wish to make sense of the forces that have convulsed the Middle East, as well as unsettling all our lives, since the end of the Cold War. -- Jason Cowley, author of Who Are We Now? and Editor in Chief of The New Statesman
Few people are as well placed to authoritatively depict the making of the modern Middle East than Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s long-serving correspondent in the region . . . excellent The New European
Jeremy Bowen is a master of succinct writing for television and in print, and his skill is showcased to brilliant effect in this distillation of decades of experience reporting from the Middle East. It’s a terrific book, pithy and pacy, equally at home telling stories of ordinary people as in encounters with princes and presidents. -- Matthew Teller, journalist and author of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem
Jeremy Bowen is uniquely qualified to analyse and explain the region’s complex political and religious landscape. His book should be essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of this fascinating, but deeply troubled, part of the world. -- Con Coughlin, author of Saddam: The Secret Life and Khomeini's Ghost
We should be thankful for his journalism; and for this work, too, with its rich historical details, its composure and balance, and its readability The Irish Times
About the Author
Jeremy Bowen is the BBC's Middle East Editor. He has reported from more than seventy countries, covering fourteen wars including those in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Chechnya, Somalia, the Middle East, Rwanda, former Yugoslavia and Ukraine. His books include Six Days, War Stories, The Arab Uprisings and The Making of the Modern Middle East. He lives in London.
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15th September 2025
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