The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs

Rating:
Summary: Patai's Arab Mind again
Review: This work has many similar themes and conclusions of an earlier work , Raphael Patai's" Arab Mind". Both authors see the Arab world as in a sense imprisoned by its own Culture, unable to escape the force of Custom and Habit. Both see the Arab world as being unable to overcome and recreate itself.
A third major voice which reads the present Arab world as one in decline is that of Bernard Lewis.
Pryce-Jones focuses on the honor- shame nexus as a major element in the Arab world's relation to others. He also sees how life closed in on clan and tribe prevents the kind of free alliance and association that helps make Democracy move.
This work is filled with evidence for the contention that the Arabs not only have not learned to modernize, but they are not likely to soon.
This work does not make for happy reading.