I confess to a high level of ignorance (or a low level of awareness, depending on how I feel that day) about the Middle East. I know things are basically a huge mess there, have been for many years, and seem unlikely to improve (despite Jared Kushner being put in charge of peace in the Middle East). I really enjoyed Richard Engel’s book And Then All Hell Broke Loose, learning a lot in the process.  I definitely can use more, and  I was happy to have the opportunity to read Lords of the Desert by James Hall (thanks to Perseus Books/Basic Books and NetGalley) in return for my honest review.

This book takes advantage of recently declassified documents to bring a fresh perspective to the study of Britain’s exit from the Middle East. The typical view has been that Arab nationalism (including the rise of leaders such as Nasser in Egypt, for example) and popular uprisings forced Britain to reassess their colonial power and depart. In Lords of the Desert, Barr presents a new view: that the United States was actually the driving force behind Britain’s exit. This brings a somewhat different view of the causes of the current situation, and is a fascinating look overall at the relationship between the two nations. Seems to me that we tend to think of as having been inseparable allies for hundreds of years, but that is not such a certainty after reading this book.

TBH, I am pretty sure I am not the intended audience for this book. James Barr is an amazing historian (he studied history at Lincoln College, Oxford and is currently a visiting fellow at King’s College, London. He has written extensively on the Middle East and it is clear he knows his stuff.  So, what’s my problem? It seemed there was a considerable assumption of a level of prior knowledge that I just don’t have. So I felt lost much of the time and stupid the rest of the time. As a history, it likely deserves all the stars it can get. For the casual reader who lacks real knowledge of even the basic history of Britain in the Middle East, it earns two stars. (Five stars for his research)