Fragile Nation, Shattered Land: The Modern History of Syria

Reilly, a historian at the University of Toronto, distills half a millennium of conflict and shifting alliances into a clear, eminently readable work that demystifies the origins and fault lines of the current crisis in Syria. The region, defined by an accident of geography more than a strongly articulated national identity, was part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuries, became a French-controlled nation after WWI, and, more recently, “lacked the anchors to withstand the disintegrative effects of regional wars and political-sectarian rivalries, especially after the ill-conceived U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.” The environment that allowed Syria’s initial Arab Spring protests to emerge and spread was one in which governmental attention had shifted from the agricultural regions to the prosperous, mercantile urban communities, leaving a vacuum of power in the rural heartland. Though the events of the past decade are only reached in the final 25 pages, and Reilly offers few clues as to what the future may hold, his sweeping vision and encyclopedic knowledge of everything from crop yields to the Levantine educational system make this an essential book for anyone seeking to understand the modern Middle East. [em](Jan.) [/em]