Unlike a number of other “second” editions in paperback we could all mention, this revised and updated version of a title first published in 1992 is accurately and honestly described. The pattern remains the same but each of its nine sections provides clear evidence that its author has genuinely taken trouble to truly update his original book. By now the Companion to History volumes, under the direction of two highly experienced editors, Chris Cook, and John Stevenson, have earned a high number of merit points, not only as useful and welcome adjuncts to sixth‐form and undergraduate history courses, but also for their value in public reference libraries which may not enjoy wider resources. Covering a region which has consistently retained a volatile importance in world affairs, this particular title is especially welcome in an updated and revised edition.
Easily the longest section is a series of 13 chronologies, the first of which ranges over the emergence of modern nation states in the region, from 1820 when Britain concluded a General Treaty of Peace for suppressing piracy and slave traffic with the Arab tribes of the Persian Gulf, to September 1995, when Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation signed the Washington agreement for internal Palestinian self‐rule in the West Bank, the first, and certainly not the last, of a long trail of treaties, agreements, declarations etc. the only common denominator of which was that they were proved to be constructed on shifting sands. There follow, in due order, the birth of the state of Israel, the significance of oil, the Mossadeq crisis in Iran 1950‐54, the rise of Nasser, the Suez Crisis 0f 1956, the Arab‐Israeli wars and the peace process, the rise of revolutionary Islam and the Khomeini Revolution in Iran, the Palestinian refugees issue, the war in Lebanon, the Iran‐Iraq War, and the Gulf War. What a depressing record this is. If it is the best the United Nations era can manage, the period of mandates, spheres of influence, and client states, might appear in retrospect as an irretrievably lost Nirvana.
Section Two consists of short biographies of prominent statesmen, leaders, and other key players: hands up all those who know who Blanche Elizabeth Campell (“Buffy”) Dugdale was, or what role she played. Section Three comprises a list of pledges, treaties, alliances, settlements, reports, plans, and United Nations resolutions, and other documents, that litter the scene. Their discouraging futility would have been more heavily underlined if they had been listed in chronological rather than dictionary order. Section four is given over to the bewildering number of religions and sects that confront, perplex, and confound today’s statesmen. Next comes an A‐Z by country list of rulers, prime ministers, foreign ministers, and political parties and movements, and then a glossary to locations, organisations, events, and peoples. Underpinning the whole is a 30‐page topic bibliography, each topic corresponding to one of the chronologies, and a short list of reference works. This is supplemented with economic and social statistics, mostly relating to world oil production and consumption, and six admirably clear and relevant maps, to form a comprehensive overview of a region which still shows no signs of stability or peace. No doubt, within a very short time, a third edition will be required.
