Politics and Change.

• Author: Bullock, James L.
• Position: Politics and Change in the Middle East - Book review

Politics and Change

Review by James L. Bullock

Roy R. Andersen; Robert F. Seibert; Jon G. Wagner, Politics and Change in the Middle East, Tenth Edition, Longman (an imprint of Pearson Education, Inc. of Glenview, Illinois), 2012, ISBN-13 978-0-205-08399-2;,402 pp., $65.00

Politics and Change in the Middle East is primarily a standard text for undergraduate introductory courses on the Middle East. It could also well serve the needs of any general reader interested to get past today's headlines to a deeper understanding of the Middle Eastern societies producing those headlines. A long-time best seller, now in its tenth edition, Politics and Change employs a thematic approach to the region in an attempt to be both generally understandable to non-specialists and generally non-objectionable to often partisan specialists. For over a generation this standard text has largely met this dual challenge and the latest edition remains a generally good overall introduction to the peoples and politics of an important and often misunderstood region.

The three authors are long-time colleagues at Knox College, a private liberal arts institution in Galesburg, Illinois, about 200 miles southwest of Chicago. Roy Andersen is a professor of economics; Robert F. Seibert is a professor of Political Science and chair of Knox's International Studies program; and Jon Wagner is a professor of anthropology. Together they have dedicated a substantial part of their professional lives to producing and updating this text, presenting the politics of the Middle East by integrating the perspectives of their respective disciplines, and incorporating a generous helping contemporary material, largely gleaned from the media and other public sources.

This is not on-scene reporting, however; and, as a summation, produced far from the region, the text occasionally will snag the sensibilities of an experienced area expert with what seem to be overly sweeping generalities or inexplicable omissions-such as the failure to note the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, vividly recalled by this reviewer (although the subsequent bombing of the Marine barracks at Beirut airport was noted). Overall, Politics and Change does provide a wealth of material and gives its readers substantial background to begin to make informed judgments. It is still an introductory textbook, however, complete with a few "key terms" to memorize at the end of each chapter. Sometimes, inexplicably, key words...