Middle East Books

I work in a multinational company and am in daily contact with colleagues and clients abroad. They come from r&d, marketing and sales. When I read the book, everything clicked. All of a sudden, I understood why problems dealing with contracts, managing time and solving conflicts had arisen in the past. "Border Crossings" also gave me some good ideas about how to solve intercultural conflicts. When I first started out, I needed a dictionary to understand the language. Now that I understand the language, I need a cultural interpreter to figure out what the words and behavior really mean. "Border Crossings" is my interpreter.

Anyone in either Israel or the US that is interested in working with a factor from the other country cannot afford not to read this book. It has nothing to do with intuition or intelligence - the differences can only be learned, either through tiresome and costly experience or through reading Border Crossings.

This book is a wonderful eye-witness account, told in a totally readable style. You will LOVE this book! How do I know? I wrote it! I got lost in Egypt, the West Bank of Palestine, Kabul and the Green Zone in Iraq. You will think that you were there with me. But bring your own flak jacket for sure!

For some, Jane Stillwater might be an acquired taste. She has a gift for skewering the pompous with a phrase, of unabashedly pointing out which emperors lack clothes. If one is a die-hard conservative still giving George Bush manly love, Jane's writing will probably be infuriating. (At least one can hope.)

She writes from a personal perspective and the chronicle of her overseas oddessies read like a combination of Mark Twain and Jack Kerouac.

For the seriously open-minded who enjoy a good chortle.

The weapons that won the Cold War include ICBMs and nuclear bombs flown on B-52s. These were threats, but never had to be deployed into action. But one weapon that did go into action was hotels. Hilton hotels. This is the surprising demonstration in _Building the Cold War: Hilton International Hotels and Modern Architecture_ (University of Chicago Press) by Annabel Jane Wharton. What is even more surprising is that Hilton hotels did not just participate in the capitalist boom that eventually dislodged the Soviet Union. They were deliberately placed, designed, and run to make a profit, to be sure, but also to dislodge the Red Threat. This is not just the author's speculation. Conrad Hilton made it explicit: "Let me say right here, that we operate hotels abroad for the same reason we operate them in this country - to make money for our stockholders... However, we feel that if we really believe in what we are all saying about liberty, about Communism, about happiness, that we, as a nation, must exercise our great strength and power for good against evil. If we really believe this, it is up to each of us, our organizations and our industries, to contribute to this objective with all the resources at our command." He was careful not to disparage our country's military, but said, "I will tell you frankly, satellites and H-bombs will not get the job done."

Wharton has done an excellent job of giving a broad history of the overseas Hilton, while giving case studies of specific ones. The Istanbul Hilton, for instance, had all the usual amenities, like lawns (completely foreign to the area), tennis courts, and a swimming pool. It had the extraordinary feature, common in foreign Hiltons, of iced water piped into every room. However, the marquee covering cars that drove up to the entrance was a wavy horizontal structure that was referred to as the "flying carpet." The interior lobby had a series of domes in the ceiling, a bow to mosque designs, and there were teakwood screens and Turkish carpets. Work by local artisans decorated the public spaces. Nonetheless, you can see in the pictures (and in this book, there are many useful ones) that the Istanbul Hilton is still a concrete, metal, and glass box like nothing else around it. Old hotels concentrated on public rooms inside; the Hiltons looked out, with lots of glass in every room to supply a view. The view was carefully chosen. In Istanbul, it faced East, toward the Soviet Union, daring those Commies to look American modernity and wealth in the eyes.

Wharton is a historian of medieval art. Her family used some of these hotels when she was growing up, and she has returned to them to give an architectural history of the Hilton overseas effort. (She could not visit two Hiltons now lost, the one in Havana and the one in Tehran.) It is a remarkable history, no longer active because the Cold War is over, and because others followed Hiltons into the modernism market. The Hilton hotels still exist, but they are just hotels now, not unique as architecture nor as Cold War armaments. They shaped the way American visitors viewed foreign capitals, and boosted American economic (and therefore political) policies. Conrad Hilton may not have won the Cold War, but he did more than plenty of the generals.

Annabel Wharton has written a stunning and brilliant book about the US, Europe and the Middle East during the 1950s and 1960s, the height of the Cold War. She tells the story of how Conrad Hilton and his hotel empire participated in the rebuilding of Western Europe and key spots in the Middle East in the wake of WWII by establishing the Hilton International hotels--architectural monuments to modernism--as "little Americas" away from home for US businessmen, tourists, and diplomats. She explores Hilton hotels in London, Berlin, Istanbul. Rome, Cairo , Athens and other locales. Wharton is a smart, witty writer, and this book is a great pleasure to read.

There are a lot of books in print on Burma's current problems, and the struggle for human rights. Shelby Tucker's book is the only one that I have seen that shows how Burma's current struggles are not merely the result of the current junta's misrule, but also grow out of Burma's post-war history. He also discusses both Aung San's strengths, and his failings, making him much more human than much of the current literature. He also covers the struggles of Burma's minorities, and the drug trade, giving one a good overview of a troubled country.

'A punchy, well-balanced history ... He packs in a lot of information about geography, ethnicity and the details of Burma's tumultuous past.' Literary Review

'This book is a rare treat ... Interwoven with Tucker's stylish and humorous chronicle, is an informative account of Kachin history and culture, and a lucid exposition of the complex subject of Burma's troubled political history and decades of civil war and suffering'. Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group

'One of the most comprehensive accounts of modern Burmese history written in recent years. He outlines Burma's descent into chaos after independence from Britain in 1948, and gives his view on why the country has been engulfed since then in civil war.' Far Eastern Economic Review

'Written with fluency and verve, the book has to be regarded as a standard work and is indispensable for the understanding of the travails of modern Burma.' John McEnery, author of 'Epilogue in Burma'

'He is endlessly fascinating and well-informed on this little known region of Asia'. Times Literary Supplement

Nora's family has a special Saturday afternoon ritual in which Nora keeps her father, Baba, company in the kitchen while he cooks a savory Moroccan dish of couscous, meat, and vegetables. While they wait for her mother to come home from work, and as the tantalizing smells fill the kitchen, Nora feels increasingly hungry and complains to Baba that she is starving.

But Baba knows what it really feels like to slowly starve. He recounts to Nora a story from his youth in a mountain village of Morocco when a famine left him no more than a little bit of hard crusty bread to eat every day, and the jar of butter in which he liked to dip the bread had gone empty. Wanting to distract him from his hunger pangs, Baba's mother sent him outside to sit along the dirt road and wait for the butter peddler to come along. The butter man never did come, but watching the passers-by served as a necessary diversion until the day his father returned home from across the mountains with a sack of flour and a basket of food.

This outstanding book has much to offer with its powerful lesson about famine and hunger, the introduction of Moroccan culture and vocabulary, and the dramatic folk-art illustrations. The Butter Man communicates in a sensitive and careful way what it may feel like to experience extreme scarcity and how a particular family gets through the difficult time. Readers will appreciate how this important lesson is woven into an engrossing story with a unique international context.

I bought this for my five-year-old daughter and she loves it. For us, it was not only a clever story, but the start of an education about Morocco. We have also talked a lot about world hunger (and helping people in need) since reading it, which I think is great. The story of Ali & the Butter Man is now a family favorite.

Paul Stephenson reached several conclusions that are really revolutionary for the study of the Byzantine administration in the Balkan provinces. The increasing interest for the Balkan history (not only for the modern times) denotes the need to understand the roots of the present conflicts. Stephenson's book explains how and why the disintegration of the Byzantine administration and the emergence of the ethnic states in the Balkans were possible. His main idea is that "Byzantine authority was almost always exercised through existing local power structures". Can we consider these surviving local structures to be a cause of the future Balkan separatism, even if they were not always the expression of "national" solidarities ? We think so, because also the Ottoman administration preserved and used in its interest the power of some Albanian, Serbian and Bosniac local potentates, after their conversion to Islam and even before. Stephenson has payed a special attention to the significance of the frontier as an ideological limit between the civilized world and the barbarians. He also introduces a new concept: the internal frontiers of the territories mastered by the local authochtonous rulers by whom the Byzantine administration was exerted. The book brings valuable arguments for the new interpretation of the 11th century supported by P. Lemerle and more recently by M. Angold against Ostrogorsky's old viewpoint. Stephenson shows that the shift to `civilian' government was not a decline, because "the Byzantine economy was growing rapidly" and that the defence policy based on warfare was replaced with a more adecquate policy based on trade and gifts for the barbarians ("traiding, not raiding"). He considers that Basil II left a poisoned legacy: a too large and expensive army, and that his `civilian' successors tried to transform the general strategy after the hard Pecheneg inroads of 1036, when became obvious that a classical limes is not useful. Unlike many works of Byzantine political history, this book gives much attention to the rich archaeological and numismatic evidence, carefully used in order to supply the scarcity of the literary sources. Some points are disputable or even wrong, but, generally speaking, the use of archaeology led him to important conclusions I consider that the most important Stephenson's contributions concern the history of the Paradunavon province (in northern Bulgaria and Dobrudja) and the Byzantine-Hungarian relations in the 12th century. Other subjects dealt in are: the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria, the restoration of this state after the rebellion led by the Vlach rulers Peter and Asan in the form of a Romanian-Bulgarian state, the small Slavic principalities in the Serbian lands. Albeit a high-scientific work, this book can easily be read by any people interested in the medieval history. We can be sure that this book will be considered a major contribution to the history of the South-Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages.

Dr. Alexandru Madgearu

Paul Stephenson reached several conclusions that are really revolutionary for the study of the Byzantine administration in the Balkan provinces. The increasing interest for the Balkan history (not only for the modern times) denotes the need to understand the roots of the present conflicts. Stephenson's book explains how and why the disintegration of the Byzantine administration and the emergence of the ethnic states in the Balkans were possible. His main idea is that "Byzantine authority was almost always exercised through existing local power structures". Can we consider these surviving local structures to be a cause of the future Balkan separatism, even if they were not always the expression of "national" solidarities ? We think so, because also the Ottoman administration preserved and used in its interest the power of some Albanian, Serbian and Bosniac local potentates, after their conversion to Islam and even before. Stephenson has payed a special attention to the significance of the frontier as an ideological limit between the civilized world and the barbarians. He also introduces a new concept: the internal frontiers of the territories mastered by the local authochtonous rulers by whom the Byzantine administration was exerted. The book brings valuable arguments for the new interpretation of the 11th century supported by P. Lemerle and more recently by M. Angold against Ostrogorsky's old viewpoint. Stephenson shows that the shift to `civilian' government was not a decline, because "the Byzantine economy was growing rapidly" and that the defence policy based on warfare was replaced with a more adecquate policy based on trade and gifts for the barbarians ("traiding, not raiding"). He considers that Basil II left a poisoned legacy: a too large and expensive army, and that his `civilian' successors tried to transform the general strategy after the hard Pecheneg inroads of 1036, when became obvious that a classical limes is not useful. Unlike many works of Byzantine political history, this book gives much attention to the rich archaeological and numismatic evidence, carefully used in order to supply the scarcity of the literary sources. Some points are disputable or even wrong, but, generally speaking, the use of archaeology led him to important conclusions I consider that the most important Stephenson's contributions concern the history of the Paradunavon province (in northern Bulgaria and Dobrudja) and the Byzantine-Hungarian relations in the 12th century. Other subjects dealt in are: the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria, the restoration of this state after the rebellion led by the Vlach rulers Peter and Asan in the form of a Romanian-Bulgarian state, the small Slavic principalities in the Serbian lands. Albeit a high-scientific work, this book can easily be read by any people interested in the medieval history. We can be sure that this book will be considered a major contribution to the history of the South-Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages....END

The cooperative work of Midwest folklorist Joanne Raetz Stuttgen and food columnist and cookbook author Terese Allen, "Cafe Wisconsin Cookbook" is a compilation of the history, anecdotes and recipes associated with some of Wisconsin's very best small town cafes ranging from Boscobel to Glennwood City, and from Stoughton to Sturgeon Bay. The recipes are organized around the categories of Breakfast, Baked Goods, Soups, Salads, Daily Specials, Sandwiches and Burgers, Sid Dishes and Extras, Pies and Other Desserts. Now any family cook can duplicate Wisconsin's Main Street eateries with respect to menu items ranging from pies, meatloaf and fish fries, to casseroles, burgers, and blue plate specials. "Cafe Wisconsin Cookbook" is an enthusiastically recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library regional cookbook collections!

Many good recipes, now we know the secrets of the cafes. Sadly, some are no longer in business but fortunately live on in the book. The Snicker salad recipe is worth the price of the book.

Great book. It was such an easy ready. To pack up your life and leave your comfort zone is amazing, but to include one husband and two children - now THAT's courageous! I enjoyed her insightfullness and her wit. I read her words and I saw myself stomping the "cucarachas" with them, I was with her running down the insidious lecher, and I was with her at the beach trying to blend in (or not) :-) I really enjoyed your words! Encore Encore Encore!

Here's the description of the book:

In January, 2005, a young anthropologist boards a plane in Los Angeles with her husband and two young children, and flies to Egypt, a world both ancient and modern. So begins a year and a half sojourn in the most populous city in the Middle East. Part memoir, part humorous narrative, part cultural analysis, The Cairo Chronicles follows the experiences and impressions of an adventuring anthropologist in this city on the Nile. Here she encounters a land of contrasts where produce-laden donkey carts compete for road space with luxury cars and death-defying taxi drivers; where modestly veiled women walk past flashy lingerie stores with titillating displays; where a nickel buys roasted yam on the street but imported American snack foods costs a hundred times that. In these "reports from the field" the author dons the hijab, trips over Arabic, and interacts with the bemused citizenry, evoking laughter, tears and reflection. Readers will feel the heat of a Cairo summer, mingle with in-laws and ex-patriots, chafe under strict social norms, bow in resignation to a maddening bureaucracy, delight to the devastating wit of Cairenes, weep at the suffering of a struggling underclass, and open their eyes and hearts to the warmth, resilience and humor of ordinary Egyptians.

For a person like me who has been to Cairo many times, this book offered me the chance to look at my favourite place once more. For those of you who have never been to Cairo and want to see what it looks like, I think this book gives you a good idea. Very nice pictures, I recommend it!

I was born in Cairo, by Italian parents,and I must say that Mr.Haag has done a superb job in going around and discovering all these fantastic places.I saw some, but not all.Indeed it has fascinated me the way he pictured them,and wrote about the locations that he saw.Through his own photographic eye.
This book is particularily interesting if you are a woman and would like to visit some of the old mosques, but cannot go to Egypt.It is very hard to go into the mosques as a foreign woman.It is a treasure of art to see.Also some other pictures represent street scenes which are absolutely great.Everywhere you go to Egypt, you will never have the same picture again.One because the peopleare in constant movement,and second the light changes whether it is during the morning or at sunset.The sunsets are just breathtaking,and it also affects the photography and the scene that you are depicting.
Mr. Haag goes around easily being a man, and it is more difficult to go in certain coffee places when you are a woman.You cannot go infact.
Enjoy this book he has done a superb job.

An excellent pursuit of clarity in unbiased academic research; bearing the fruits of truth and far reaching implications concerning honest analysis of scripture.
Although such light all too often goes unheralded, one can only hope that Dr. Avner Ramu will continue presenting such wonderful commentary concerning historical truths in relation to biblical foundations.

A very detailed and interesting book integrating modern themes in a generally historical book. A must get for historians, Israelites, Jews, Christains, and really any one who is up for good reading.