Dream Palace of the Arabs, The
A Generation's Odyssey

Written before September 11, Ajami's ever-relevant book asks why modern Arab society thinks so differently from others. This wasn't always so: Today's Arab society is the repudiation of a bygone liberalization among Arab thinkers, an opening up that faded after about 1967. But why did liberal trends......more

Ajami is the rock star Middle East Studies scholar at an exceptionally wonderful graduate school, and I wanted to read his stuff. For those of us who watch current events in the Arab World, and say, "Where did all this secular leftism come from?" this book chronicles where it came from. Ajami compel......more

The Middle East is planet Earth’s permanent snafu. While the troubles there didn’t start in the 20th century, it is clear that the Arabic lands since World War II have been a continuation of their turbulent past and a sad precursor for where they are heading in the future. Fouad Ajami takes a look a......more

This book is Ajami's exploration of Arab intellectual currents in the 20th century, from nationalism to Islamism; touching on topics such as relations with Israel and the rise and fall of the Saddam Hussein's Iraq. While I've long been skeptical of Ajami's politics his work shows him to be an intelle......more

以色列作家激烈批评以色列的书读过好几本了，阿拉伯裔作家激烈批评阿拉伯世界的书，这还是我读过的第一本。 作者对于阿拉伯世界内部的世俗派和原教旨主义者、逊尼派和什叶派、产油国和非产油国、泛阿拉伯主义和本国的民族主义之间的纠葛与冲突，提供了大量有价值的信息和视角。相对而言，全书的前两章质量更高、更言之有物，后两章相对更空泛些，词藻略多于洞见。 然而，由于成书时间较早，作者对第一次海湾战争后美国政策的批评、对海湾国家的瓦哈比主义以及埃及面临的神权政治的风险的评估，如今看来都出现了不同程度的错算。但这个也无可厚非，毕竟没有人能够预测未来，而我们凭借的也不过是后见之明罢了。 究其核心，作者借用一部分阿多尼斯的观......more