The Contemporary Middle East

The Contemporary Middle East provides an accessible introduction to the region's most pressing concerns and enduring conflicts. It includes provocative contributions by an impressive array of leading scholars, journalists, and policy advisors, as well as major addresses by President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Contributors include notable academic authors Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., William Cleveland, Colbert Held, Shibley Telhami, David Lesch, David E. Long, Bernard Reich, Samih Farsoun, and Phebe Marr, complemented by selections from recent general-interest books by Mark Matthews, Zake Chehab, Farnaz Fassihi, Michael Axworthy, Ali Ansari, and Lee Harris, among many others.


With twenty new chapters and a new integrative opening essay by honored scholar Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., the second edition is a probing examination of the current affairs of the Middle East. Its multiple readings on strategic pairings of topics (Israel and Palestine, Iran and Iraq) illuminate the region's key issues from a variety of perspectives. Chapter-opening summaries help establish background and context, and a new concluding chapter by Shibley Telhami, written specifically for this volume, candidly addresses fundamental questions about the United States and the Middle East today. Student resources include an annotated table of contents, select bibliography, glossary, brief biographical register, and chronology, in addition to numerous maps.