
Kingmakers
The Invention of the Modern Middle East
WW Norton & Co (Publisher)
Published on 23. September 2008
Book
Hardback
512 pages
978-0-393-06199-4 (ISBN)
Description
Kingmakers is the story of how the modern Middle East came to be, told through the lives of the Britons and Americans who shaped it. Some are famous (Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell); others infamous (Harry St. John Philby, father of Kim); some forgotten (Sir Mark Sykes, Israel's godfather, and A. T. Wilson, the territorial creator of Iraq); some controversial (the CIA's Miles Copeland and the Pentagon's Paul Wolfowitz). All helped enthrone rulers in a region whose very name is an Anglo-American invention. As a bonus, we meet the British Empire's power couple, Lord and Lady Lugard (Flora Shaw): she named Nigeria, he ruled it; she used the power of the Times of London to attempt a regime change in the gold-rich Transvaal. The narrative is character-driven, and the aim is to restore to life the colorful figures who for good or ill gave us the Middle East in which Americans are enmeshed today.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Illustrations
30; 2 maps
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 168 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
866 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-393-06199-4 (9780393061994)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
10/2009
W. W. Norton & Company
€19.49
Available for download
Persons
Shareen Blair Brysac, formerly a prize-winning documentary producer at CBS News, is the author of Resisting Hitler and co-author of Tournament of Shadows and Kingmakers with Karl E. Meyer. The couple lives in New York and Weston, Connecticut. Karl E. Meyer has written extensively on foreign affairs as a staff member of the New York Times and the Washington Post.