A magnificent, readable, and depressing book on the Arab world for the past couple centuries. Rogan reports neutrally on simply what has happened across time and geography, and the tale is almost more tragic for it. The ongoing litany of deaths, failures, reversals, and challenges to the Arabs in the Middle East is lengthy and full of woe, and Rogan is both detailed and unsparing. Placing considerably more emphasis on more recent history, his review of the events leading up to that history is still lucid and understandable.