With the recent escalation of conflict in the Middle East I felt compelled to become more knowledgeable regarding the conflict and the history of the Middle East. Bernard Lewis is said to have been one of the foremost world experts on this complex part of the world so I thought this would be a good place to start. Spoiler alert - I gave up after 280 pages. Professor Lewis was clearly exceptionally learned and I am sure that those in academia would have found this book extraordinary. For my part I thought it was dense, very hard to follow and written in a manner that was far too academic for my taste. There is no question that the Middle East is steeped in a complex history however this book takes something complex and amplifies the complexity rather than distilling or interpreting it in a way that is accessible for those who are not as scholarly. ( )

Tedious in some parts but overall a good broad primer on the region. ( )

EL ORIENTE PRÓXIMO:
DOS MIL AÑOS DE HISTORIA

El Oriente Próximo ha sido un escenario privilegiado de la historia:
lugar de nacimiento de tres grandes religiones y de numerosas
civilizaciones, centro de poder político y militar... Se le han
dedicado infinidad de libros, pero nadie hasta ahora se había atrevido
a ofrecernos un panorama que abarcase dos mil años de historia,
desde la aparición del cristianismo hasta la guerra del Golfo, de
esa compleja encrucijada del viejo mundo. Se requería, para una
tarea tan ambiciosa, a un hombre como Bernard Lewis, de
la Universidad de Princeton, el más prestigioso de los orientalistas
actuales.

Anyone who wants to understand the Middle East should start with Bernard Lewis. ( )

A very nice narration of the happenings in the Middle East for the past nearly 2 millenia. Anyone wanting to know about this most misunderstood region should read this book first.