Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East

By Robin Wright

Book Overview

"Wright has long been one of the best-informed American journalists covering the Middle East, and her reputation is born out here....Her book will be essential reading for anybody who wants to know where it is heading." -The New York Times Book Review

The transformation of the Middle East is an issue that will absorb-and challenge-the world for generations to come. Dreams and Shadows is the book to read to understand the sweeping political and cultural changes that have occurred in recent decades. Drawing on thirty-five years of reporting in two dozen countries, including Israel, Palestine, Iran, Egypt, and Syria, through wars, revolutions, and uprisings as well as the birth of new democracy movements and a new generation of activists, award-winning journalist and Middle East expert Robin Wright has created a masterpiece of the reporter's art and a work of profound and enduring insight into one of the most confounding areas of the world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143114891
• ISBN13: 9780143114895
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

useful and relevant

This book was a great overview of the middle east for anyone interested in getting an broad perspective. Robin Wright provides a framework for understanding the region that is lacking in most of the coverage we encounter. The two chapters on Iran and the final chapter on Iraq are particularly relevant and useful for current discussions (of course, all of the book provides a perspective that we all should encounter).

Excellent and easy to read overview of the middle-east

I found this book excellent. It gives an overview of the current middle-east situation. It details the various 'dreams' and 'shadows' that each country face. It frequently refers to anecdotes which makes it easy to read. Highly recommended.

A hopeful book

I found this to be a hopeful book. Robin Wright has spent years in the area and has contacts with the power structure. That plus her interviews with "ordinary" people gave her book validity. The middle east world has been expanded with access to the web and television. The seeds for change are there if we just get out of their way and give them time to develop.

A reporter of the best kind

For three decades Robin Wright has worked in the Middle East as the best kind of reporter -- a messenger who really listens to people and conveys their messages straight. In this book she draws on a vast network of people who trust her to convey the real experience of Middle Easterners struggling for a better future. She introduces numerous local heroes from Morocco to Iran, who have risked themselves standing up to despotic rulers. Where the West once supported conservative Muslim rulers against Communists, Wright finds that many of the strongest voices for fairness and liberty are socialists or communists. Where the West has backed Muslim autocrats against Islamists, she finds a new wave of popular movements for religious values have become the strongest challengers to autocracy. Wright honestly conveys the difficulties and courage of these activists. She also conveys their despair over the destructive role of US interventionism in the region. As Syrian dissident Yassin Haj Saleh puts it, "However opposed Syrians are to our own regime, they now distrust the Americans more". I think this is the kind of direct dialogue with local leaders that we need most from our news professionals.

The Middle East, After 9-11

Ms. Wright has written a State of Disunion for the Arabic countries of the Middle East and North Africa, post 9-11. It is an optimistic report of gradual change against the Islamic fundamentalism (Hamas, Hezbollah) that already function as nation-states. The greatest obstacle to change are the entrenched military regimes and the Western interests. The two freely elected governments were Islamic fundamentalism in Algeria in 1992 and Hamas' victory in 2006. Neither election was recognized by the West. A hopeful sign is that the Internet is being used to connect reformers and spread information. Ms. Wright has written a long, interesting book that is full of insight into the world of the Middle East.