The best-selling book on the current crisis is Jean P. Sasson’s “The Rape of Kuwait” (Knightsbridge. Paper, $4.95), with 1.2 million copies in print. An account of Iraqi atrocities in Kuwait, the book is written so simple-mindedly that the real horrors it describes seem to evaporate in the prose style. The second biggest seller, with 800,000 copies in print, is by far the more useful purchase. Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times, and Laurie Mylroie, a Middle East specialist at Harvard, were among the first writers out of the gate when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Their “Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf” (Times. Paper, $5.95) is a clear, efficient introduction to the drama now unfolding daily. The authors are particularly good at analyzing Washington’s mistakes and motives in the gulf, and their conclusions about American interests in the region effectively separate the rhetoric from the reality. “Desert Shield Fact Book,” by Frank Chadwick (GDW Games/Berkley. Paper, $10) will appeal mostly to gulf mavens who like having statistics, diagrams, maps, chronologies and glossaries at their fingertips while they’re watching CNN. Another for the military buffs is “How to Defeat Saddam Hussein,” by Trevor Dupuy, Curt Johnson, David L. Bongard and Arnold C. Dupuy (Warner. Paper, $4.95). A retired Army colonel, Trevor Dupuy fashioned this book at top speed from testimony presented to the House Armed Services Committee in December; Warner is sending it forth this week in a huge first printing of 600,000 copies. Journalists David Holden and Richard Johns give an in-depth analysis of the country American soldiers were sent to defend last summer in “The House of Saud” (out of print), a work well written and immensely knowledgeable.
“Republic of Fear,” by Samir al-Khalil (Pantheon. Paper, $12.95), has been called dense and hard to navigate even by its fans, but it’s uniformly cited as a must read (or a must try to). The author, an Iraqi expatriate writing under a pseudonym for his own and his family’s safety, describes the growth and dominance of the Baath Party and Saddam’s regime, which instilled throughout Iraq the horrifying new norms of “fear, violence and conformity.” David Fromkin’s “A Peace to End All Peace” (Avon. Paper, $14.95) scrutinizes the crucial years 1914-1922, when the map of the modern Middle East was drawn, and shows how the Allies laid the groundwork for years of conflict.
Daniel Yergin’s “The Prize” (Simon & Schuster. $24.95) is a monumental analysis of the history and politics of oil, hence perhaps the most pertinent introduction of all to the events underway in the gulf. Engagingly written and a landmark of research into what he calls our “hydrocarbon civilization,” this book would have attracted widespread notice under any circumstances; in the current climate it zoomed to the best-seller lists virtually upon publication.
Readers who contemplate wandering at will through some of the more general works on Arab history and culture should probably keep at hand a copy of Edward Said’s “Orientalism” (Vintage. Paper, $10.95). A convincing indictment of most Western scholarship on the Middle East, Said’s book analyzes the prejudices and fancies that have marked Western attitudes toward Arabs and Islam. (As late as 1967, notes Said, a Middle East scholar at Princeton published a report confidently predicting that the Middle East was about to dwindle in political importance and would hardly repay close study.) Scholars in the field - including Said - eagerly anticipate this spring’s publication of “A History of the Arab Peoples,” by British historian Albert Hourani (Harvard. $24.95). Hourani covers 12 centuries of social, economic, political and cultural life in a work already being hailed as both comprehensive and definitive. Writing not as an expert but simply as a smart reporter, David Lamb describes his years as a Middle East correspondent for the Los Angeles Times in the 1980s in “The Arabs” (Vintage. Paper, $9.95). Observant, witty and much more opinionated than his actual reporting would have been, the book makes a pleasurable introduction to a complex subject. Jonathan Raban’s “Arabia” (out of print) is another easygoing way to make an initial venture into the desert. Raban is a beguiling travel writer who keeps an open mind, a sense of humor and a remarkably sane perspective as he encounters new worlds.
Sir Ronald Storrs’s “Orientations” (out of print) is just the sort of book Said warns against; nonetheless it offers a wonderful look at the British in the colonial Middle East, clinging to every scrap of their peculiar glory. Storrs had a long career in various posts, including that of military governor of Jerusalem after World War I, and his memoir gives a vivid sense of how a classically educated gentleman with a love of opera did his best for king and country in a strange and messy land.
Of the many, many books on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, “Their Promised Land,” by Marcia Kunstel and Joseph Albright (Crown. $19.95) stands out for its thoughtfulness, its fairness and its excellent story. These two journalists examine life in a single valley of the Jerusalem hills, where villages can be traced back to Biblical times and where both Jews and Arabs were settled by the end of the 19th century. Zeroing in on one area and the families who still call it home, tracing those families through the years of Jewish settlement, war and the Palestinian diaspora, the authors give us history in that rare and memorable form - real life.
Thomas Friedman’s “From Beirut to Jerusalem” (Anchor. Paper, $12.95) won the 1989 National Book Award; current events have sent it back to the top of the best-seller list. Friedman writes compellingly about his experiences and inquiries during the years he was reporting from Lebanon and Israel for The New York Times. One of his encounters - with an Orthodox Jewish leader in Jerusalem - serves well to explain years of Middle Eastern strife. “What I reject of pluralism is the idea that we are all equally right,” the leader told him. “We are not.”
Perhaps the hardest thing for Westerners to understand about the Middle East is Islam, the religion that spurs Arab history. General histories of the region deal to some extent with religion, but readers who want to learn more will find surprisingly few introductory books available. John Esposito’s newly revised “Islam, the Straight Path” (Ox ford $21.95), covers the territory in academic detail but perfectly clear prose. Fouad Ajami’s study of Arab political thought, “The Arab Predicament” (Cambridge. Paper, $12.95), is enlightening on Islamic fundamentalism and what it promises for modern Arabs. An unusual and fascinating way to begin to understand the power of Islam in Arab history is with Amin Maalouf’s “The Crusades Through Arab Eyes” (Schocken. Paper, $12.95). Maalouf plunges deeply into chronicles of the time to create a vivid and absorbing account of the invasions as they were experienced by the Arabs themselves. As Maalouf makes plain, Islamic attitudes toward the West are still influenced by the events of the 11th century.
For aficionados of the way we fight now, publishers are launching an abundance of books on making modern war. Among the latest is “Desert Shield,” by Robert F. Dorr (Motorbooks. Paper, $12.95), which describes and illustrates the immense logistical operation that brought the armed forces into the desert. Peter C. Smith’s “Close Air Support” (Orion. $24.95) examines the use of air power since World War I, while “Fighter Missions,” by Bill Gunston and Lindsay Peacock (Orion. $24.95) analyzes prototypical air-combat missions minute by minute, inviting readers to imagine themselves in the cockpit.
Two guides to the weapons being used in the gulf are coming out this month. “Desert Storm,” by UPI journalists Eliot Brenner and William Harwood (Orion. Paper, $9), details the technology and strategy - on both sides - of fighting land, air and sea battles in the gulf. “Weapons of Desert Storm,” by Walter J. Boyne, a retired Air Force colonel (Publications International/Signet. Paper, $7.95), is a compendium of charts and illustrations on every sort of rocket, missile, jet and tank in the conflict, including information on chemical and biological warfare. Read ’em and weep.
