As the USA is at present recognised as the only superpower, and the Middle East is the source of some of the most controversial problems in international affairs, the relations of the one with the other are a matter of great importance and have given rise to numerous publications. The present authors have already produced two previous bibliographies on the topic, in 1990 and 1994, which I have not seen (RR, 94/526). This supplement is by no means confined to publications since the earlier bibliography appeared: the works listed in it go back as far as 1908, though most are later than 1990. The 3,500 titles included comprise mainly monographs, US government publications and articles in academic journals, with some electronic or audio‐visual items. They are confined to western languages, and the great majority are in English. Their coverage includes historical as well as contemporary relations with the Middle East. The introduction describes various resources, printed and electronic, in which details of further publications might be found: I felt this section would have been easier to use if it had been set out as a list rather then as an essay.
The bibliography is arranged under alphabetical subject headings, items which are relevant to more than one subject being (in theory) repeated under each one. The majority of headings, not unnaturally, are those of individual countries, the more important ones being further subdivided by subject, not always in a predictable manner. Other headings include prominent statesmen, general subjects, such as “Orientalism”, and the names of particular international crises. The most substantial of these is “Persian Gulf War” [sic]which accounts for no fewer than 1,200 entries.
The choice of headings, and the relationships between them, might pose problems for users, especially as there appear to be no cross‐references at all. For instance, the historical names of countries are used as appropriate, but not cross‐referred to their present‐day equivalents. Thus in the historical context we find items under the heading “Barbary States” but no cross‐references to the headings for the individual states of Algiers and Tripoli, which in turn are not referred to their modern successors, Algeria and Libya. There seems to be a marked lack of consistency in the use of headings, and in the degree to which books with multiple topics are in fact repeated under each relevant heading. For instance, under the Gulf War, General Powell has a subheading of his own but General Schwarzkopf has not.
Furthermore, of the four biographies under the main heading for General Powell, only one is repeated in his subheading under “Persian Gulf War”. These inconsistencies might have been compensated for by a comprehensive subject index, but in fact, though there is an author index, the subject index is no more than a repetition in the same order of the headings used in the main body of the work. A little more attention to such significant details would have increased the value of a bibliography which, notwithstanding these criticisms, will certainly be of use to students of this crucial aspect of world affairs.
