Rating: 
Summary: not very accurate
Review: The book is ok, but not perfect. Of it's many flaws include the fact that the US oppressed and will oppress any attempt for democracy in the middle east. It's well known that a pro-west leader is someone who keeps the oil flowing at a cheap price and doesn't attack america's boy, Israel. If there was a democracy, the new leadership would be "anti-west" for raising oil prices, ending america's military hegemony over the region in favour of increased state sovereignity and "people power", and wage war against israel to aid the palestinian struggle for independence. As for the tribal aspect, almost all regions with large populations, like india, pakistan, afghanistan, china, subsaharan africa, and even some parts in europe are comprised of tribes and clans as opposed to a mono-ethnic people. The author's claiming of more forceful american interfrerence in arab internal affairs is also wrong and only serves fuel anti-american hate. And last but not least, the author also ignores that "modern" Japan has just as much a strict code of honour as arabs. Witness the resemblance between kamikaze fighers and suicide bombers for example.
Rating: 
Summary: Priceless!
Review: The book is written by a man who loves those he writes about, that is clear. If you read no other book about Arabs, this is a must.
Rating: 
Summary: accurate
Review: This book is a great book that will anger most of the arab readers. They will call it biases, bigotted & racist. However as an egyptian who lives in egypt, I believe that the author made it very clear & accurate; in a typical british style it's sharply critical & t-the-point. What the author said was nothing new to me; I was always wondering what makes the arabs so different after all these years with contacts with other cultures & all that money that some enjoy. I came to the same conclusions that the author came two. It's damn right! His appraoch is simple & clear, though not very scientific; and it lacks the comparative approach.
Rating:
Summary: Want to understand the Arab world -
Review: This book is a must. For those of you who get your view of the Arab world from distorted CNN reporting - this book is a must. It starts off a little slow - but stick with it - the pace picks up and it's hard to put down. I have a much better understanding of the Arab world, not very pretty, but clearer. All Americans should read this, and know that our Judeo-Christian values do not translate well in the Arab world.
Rating:
Summary: A Closed Circle, indeed.
Review: This book is a very distressing work. The author starts with a thesis and never lets go, analyzing almost every aspect of his chosen subject --the Arabs-- from social, political, sexual, literary, artistic, and other perspectives, reaching the conclusion that people are what they are, and that our attempts at rationalizing the behavior of societies that are totally alien to our own must end in absolute disapointment if not outright exasperation. The cultural weight of centuries rests on the Arabs and Pryce-Jones uncovers layer after layer of myth, folklore, history, lies, and the western folly of seeing Western problems and solutions mirrored in Arab realities, projecting onto a different people sets of values and accepted norms of behavior that are just not part of their lives. For the first time I have read an author that tells me something I suspected from my admittedly limited dealings with Arabs in 12 years: they understand power, but democracy escapes them as an absurdity. Any sort of sexual liberation that goes beyond the cosmetic (and even that is pushing it) is not bound to happen any time soon in the Arab world. Without it, any sort of "democracy" they may have will never be more than a mirage, a photocopy of the original. Their family lives are deeply dictatorial, and so is their social life. They will abase themselves in front of those seen as superiors, and they will humiliate those seen as inferiors. Any other treatment is alien. This is what makes this book disturbing: I have read other books on the subject and I see the coverage of news from that area of the world, and now I realize how deeply wrong those assessments are. Pryce-Jones understands politics in the Arab world as power-plays and power-grabs. He is right. The sooner we realize that, the easier it will be to deal with this reality. There are errors. The worst one is that the author insists on putting Arabs, Turks, and Persians in the same bag. They may, overall, share a common religion, even considering the Shi'a- Sunni rift, and the many other divisions inside the Muslim world (Alawites and Druzes being just a part of this deeply divided group), but they are not the same people. The book is subtitled "An interpretation of the Arabs": it should have been exactly that and leave Turks and Persians alone or, if the author really wanted to include these other peoples, the subtitle should have been changed. Also, the actor Omar Sharif is described as "not an Arab, but a Coptic Christian." Well, there are plenty of Arabs who are also Christians. Sharif is an Egyptian. That makes him an Arab. End of the argument. Still, these points are not enough to demerit a very courageous work that dares to present the views of the author as they are. These views, I feel, are very much true.
Rating:
Summary: The truth shall set you free
Review: This book is not for academics, ambassadors or State Department workers. It is neither policially correct not does it equivocate. What it does do is relate to the reader a brief but pertinent history of the whys and wherefores of the Arab mindset. For example: before the onset of Islam, Arabs had a way of life centered on family, tribe and region, with bribes, alliances (only as long as they served oneself), blood feuds, male dominance and other assorted customs of a subsistance culture. Islam did not fundamentally change that. The Arabs are not the way they are because of Islam, but in spite of it. They will use the rubric of "Islamic Unity" only in so far as it can be of use in an incessant quest for dominance. When the time comes, as the historic record shows, the Shias will gladly kill Sunnis and vice versa, in spite of the rhetoric. The Arab world thence brings this power seeking/power challenging approach to the rest of the world. I suspect that many of the unhelpful notions they have can be attributed to the total absence of the modifying effect that a more thoughtful appreciation of womankind might engender. You don't get in touch with your feminine side in Arab culture! Unfortunately, althought there are numerous Arab intellectuals who are aware of these problems, most of them have studied in the West with French, German and British nihilists. They have brought and disseminated to the Arab world a disrectful attitude to the West, as one might expect after having been tutored by the finest Western critics. Too bad they didn't spend their time in the West with Irish Firemen. One thing that did strike me was the excerpts of very moving passages of Arab novelists. If these people have a quality that sets them apart it is the art of storytelling. You can't but wonder what they could be capable of if unshakled from their past. Whether the Arabs can transform themselves and make the changes required to make them a modern people in the near future is doubtful (remember, this is not a politically correct treatise). A Western columnist wrote that "we" should invade the Arab lands, kill their leaders and make them all Christians. I would not endorse an invasion of Arab lands for a number of reasons, but the spiritual revelation of the divinity of womankind as practiced by Christians in veneration of Mary mother of God, would be a good first step.
Rating:
Summary: Why 9/11/01
Review: This is a depressing book, because the author clearly lays out the problems in the Middle East that caused the terrorist attacks on the U.S. and other West European interests, and offers no plan for a solution. However, even if this book won't make you feel good, it will make you feel more cognizant of the problem and that in itself will engender some sort of satisfaction. Read the book and weep for the hundreds of millions of people trapped in their own closed circle.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and indispensable
Review: This is a superb book: lucid, well-written, and extraordinarily informative.
Since 9/11 I have read a small mountain of books about Islam, the Arabs, Middle Eastern history, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iraq, and the American experience in Somalia.
But this book, ALONE, breaks the code, by simply and succinctly explaining the cultural norms that motivate and govern Arab political behavior.
Best of all, the text does not tacitly insist that the reader accept the validity of the author's analysis. Instead, Pryce-Jones offers a swift, accessible, and shattering account of Middle Eastern political history since Napoleon. The historical record speaks for itself, both endorsing and amplifying the author's perceptions.
There is also a superb chapter that profiles recent "Power-Holders" in the region, including Anwar Sadat, Khomeini, Assad, and Saddam Hussein. And there is good information on Palestine and Arafat.
The critical question this book raises, and answers, is whether even seasoned Western analysts have truly understood what they are watching when they have observed Arab political behavior.
The bottom line here, the author argues -- in terms that are instructive and profoundly convincing -- is that Western observers, steeped in a culture that prizes self-reflection, tolerance, and karitas -- are too often the victims of their own assumptions, and are deceived by their own predilections.
As a result they have failed to see the forest for the trees in Middle Eastern politics.
To wit: the West tacitly accepts that a self-appointed, ruthless and corrupt opportunist like Arafat is not emblematic of the political pathology that affects the region. Instead the West blithely acknowledges that Arafat is the "freedom fighter" of PLO propaganda, defending the legitimate political aspirations of an oppressed people.
In that light, I found this to be a breakthrough book.
Highly recommended. If you've walked away from a host of other books about the region, shaking your head and thinking: Yes, but...
Then this is the book that breaks the code.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting approach to a demanding subject.
Review: This is a very interesting and most timely study of an extremely demanding subject. Yet nonetheless, a subject that all Westerners need to have an understanding of should they wish to in any way comprehend what exactly is going on in the Middle East together with the mindset in the Arab world in relation to the 'war against terrorism', and what underlies and contributes to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. We are presented with a plethora of uncomfortable facts about the Middle East, including a rather perturbing picture of the philosophies within Arab/Islamic tribal society which have provided many a fertile ground for the spreading of fundamentalist Islam. This book is a well written and serious analysis of this subject and one is lead to understand the hatred of the West & Israel indoctrinated through generation after generation of the Arab peoples. I do not agree with all the author's statements but it is difficult to argue that many of his revelations are extremely pertinent to the times in which we live. Whilst this is not essentially a book about Islam, it's inherent place in this study about Arab society cannot be ignored. The terms 'losing face', 'saving face' and 'honour' are endemic to the peoples studied here. We see how they relate to decision making, attitudes and how 'dishonesty' can be justified in certain circumstances. One disturbingly sees a uniform level of savagery is prominent in the Arab world. Illustrated too is the dramatic list of the murdered Arab leaders from 1948 to the present time. Some of this study will no doubt disturb some readers whilst at the same time opening their eyes to a culture which is completely foreign to what most Westerners are familiar with. Whilst this might precipitate an understanding of the Arab/Islamic mindset and the reasons behind their lifestyles and some violent activities, I feel that the author has not really drawn the fine line between understanding and justification. A distinction which I feel needs to be made before we go along the line of adopting the principle of "one man's terrorist being another man's freedom fighter". (This is commendably dealt with in an excellent book by Alan M. Dershowitz entitled "Why Terrorism Works".) This principle usually brings to mind the Palestinian-Israeli issue, but that does not do justice to combatting the numerous outbreaks of violence/terrorism involving Moslems in Algeria, Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, India, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Niger, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen and Yugoslavia. Whilst it is an indisputable fact that not all Moslems are terrorists, the terrorists in virtually all of these matters have all regrettably been Moslems. Having drawn what I consider such essential distinctions and observations, I conclude in saying that this is indeed a very worthwhile study for those who are relatively new to this subject. I highly recommend another book along these lines by Ramon Bennett entitled "Philistine; The Great Deception". If you can get a copy of the latter book, then please do.
Rating:
Summary: An eye opener and absorbing read
Review: This is the work of a genius. Historians list events, commentators come with analysis and predictions, and politicians add their speeches of propaganda - and still it all does not make sense to us. Then along comes a genius and gives a solution to the puzzle, and everything becomes clear. This book is rich in historical facts and serious analysis and at the same time it is written in a fluent style and as absorbing as the best of novels. Pryce-Jones has the eye of an artist, and with it he looks at events and illuminates them. He arrives at the truth. The reader then says, 'Of course! Now it makes sense'. The author gives the readers a key to understand the Arabs and muslims. Why Arabs migrate in millions and risk their lives in dangerous journeys to gain access to the West in search of livelihood, and yet hate the West. Israel offered its Arabs economic boom without having to travel away to the West but Arafat chose terror and killing, and hunger for his people. Nobody who had read the book's first edition would have expectd otherwise. It is a tragedy that CNN and the European Union politicians continue to support Arab rulers and their agression, and in this way ruin the lives of ordinary Arabs, and any chance of peace in the world. After this book, they have no excuse.
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