Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Audiobook16 hours
False Prophets: British Leaders' Fateful Fascination with the Middle East from Suez to Syria
Written by Nigel Ashton
Narrated by Bruno Roubicek
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this audiobook
'Fascinating' Guardian, 'Book of the Day'
'A truly masterly book... A tour de force that will be read for a very long time.' Peter Hennessy
Selected by the New Statesman as an essential read for 2022
Britain shaped the modern Middle East through the lines that it drew in the sand after the First World War and through the League of Nations mandates over the fledgling states that followed. Less than forty years later, the Suez crisis dealt a fatal blow to Britain's standing in the Middle East and is often represented as the final throes of British imperialism. However, as this insightful and compelling new book reveals, successive prime ministers have all sought to extend British influence in the Middle East and their actions have often led to a disastrous outcome.
While Anthony Eden and Tony Blair are the two most prominent examples of prime ministers whose reputations have been ruined by their interventions in the region, they were not alone in taking significant risks in deploying British forces to the Middle East. There was an unspoken assumption that Britain could help solve its problems, even if only for the reason that British imperialism had created the problems in the first place.
Drawing these threads together, Nigel Ashton explores the reasons why British leaders have been unable to resist returning to the mire of the Middle East, while highlighting the misconceptions about the region that have helped shape their interventions, and the legacy of history that has fuelled their pride and arrogance. Ultimately, he shows how their fears and insecurities made them into false prophets who conjured existential threats out of the sands of the Middle East.
'A truly masterly book... A tour de force that will be read for a very long time.' Peter Hennessy
Selected by the New Statesman as an essential read for 2022
Britain shaped the modern Middle East through the lines that it drew in the sand after the First World War and through the League of Nations mandates over the fledgling states that followed. Less than forty years later, the Suez crisis dealt a fatal blow to Britain's standing in the Middle East and is often represented as the final throes of British imperialism. However, as this insightful and compelling new book reveals, successive prime ministers have all sought to extend British influence in the Middle East and their actions have often led to a disastrous outcome.
While Anthony Eden and Tony Blair are the two most prominent examples of prime ministers whose reputations have been ruined by their interventions in the region, they were not alone in taking significant risks in deploying British forces to the Middle East. There was an unspoken assumption that Britain could help solve its problems, even if only for the reason that British imperialism had created the problems in the first place.
Drawing these threads together, Nigel Ashton explores the reasons why British leaders have been unable to resist returning to the mire of the Middle East, while highlighting the misconceptions about the region that have helped shape their interventions, and the legacy of history that has fuelled their pride and arrogance. Ultimately, he shows how their fears and insecurities made them into false prophets who conjured existential threats out of the sands of the Middle East.
Unavailable
Related to False Prophets
Geopolitics For You
The Putin Interviews: Oliver Stone Interviews Vladimir Putin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chip War: The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Future of Geography: How the Competition in Space Will Change Our World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Shadow War: Inside Russia's and China's Secret Operations to Defeat America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Because We Say So Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Geography: Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of Our World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Move: The Forces Uprooting Us Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Really Happened In Wuhan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Return of the Russian Leviathan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great U.S.-China Tech War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America's Role in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Against the Great Reset: Eighteen Theses Contra the New World Order Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem, and Russia's Remaking of the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Truth is a Lonely Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Career Diplomacy: Life and Work in the US Foreign Service (Fourth Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On the Legal Democratic Mass Movement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOverreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for False Prophets
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews