Chapter Two examines the legacy of colonialism and imperialism in the Middle East. It also includes finely crafted, broad-brush surveys of the historical evolution of Iran, Egypt and the Palestine-Israel area during the twentieth century. Humphreys notes that, while “in Iran political tensions throughout the twentieth century have focused primarily on problems of foreign domination and constitutional government,...the front-burner issue in Egypt has been the need for economic development and some mitigation of the country’s extraordinary disparities of wealth” (p. 38). Unfortunately, this chapter does not provide the general reader with the level of updated information needed to make sense of current events. For instance, in the section on Iran, President Khatami is mentioned only once and in passing, while Hashemi Rafsanjani – one of the two dominant figures in that country between 1988 and 1997 – does not even feature in the account. Similarly, the section on Egypt contains perceptive comments on Nasser’s and Sadat’s personalities and leadership styles, but it suffers from misleading statements that might have applied back in the mid-1980s but have long since been overtaken by events. For instance, Humphreys seems to ignore the authoritarian turn of Egyptian politics during the 1990s when he states that “Mubarak has tried to deal with these matters by opening up the political system, by restoring a degree of democratic challenge and conflict, and thereby finding his way to a broad consensus” (p. 45). The section on Israel-Palestine falls short of offering even a cursory overview of the Oslo peace process – from how it came about to the problems that it has encountered.

In Chapter Three, on the role of ideology in the region’s politics, Humphreys begins by observing that modern Middle Eastern political discourse has been imbued with ideology. That claim might have been qualified by noting the solid trend toward pragmatism in the Arab world in the past two decades. In the forces that shape policy making as much as in the manner in which political disagreements are viewed, and in internal affairs as much as in inter-Arab politics or attitudes toward Israel, the 1990s witnessed far more realistic attitudes and positions. Humphreys then proceeds to focus on the fate of Arab nationalism, once the dominant ideology in the region. He points out that while Arab nationalism as an ideology that envisions the merging of several Arab states into a single political entity is probably dead, pan-Arabism is more than ever “a living and vital force” (p. 81).

Indeed, Arabs are acutely aware that they share a common history, language and culture and that their futures remain interconnected. Moreover, ideas and events, as well as political and cultural trends and debates, that originate in one Arab country are, if anything, increasingly echoed in others. Humphreys argues that this cultural form of pan-Arabism “is almost certain to have political consequences” (p. 82), but he fails to speculate on what these might be. Nor does he note that the deep-seated sense of Arab identity and solidarity he is discussing has manifested itself very clearly over the past several years in strong grass-roots opposition to U.S. sanctions on Iraq. This chapter also might have been the place for Humphreys to explore the increasingly visible impact of the information revolution on the region. After all, the new media are one of the main conduits for the “new pan-Arabism” he is noticing. The rise of satellite television (especially Qatar’s al-Jazeera news channel), the influence of pan-Arab newspapers (particularly al-Hayaat) among the educated classes (including among expatriate Arab communities in Europe and the Americas), as well as the rapidly developing use of the internet among Arab elites and the educated youth have provided new fora for the discussion of issues and forces indigenous to the region or that impinge on it. These are developments with profound social and political implications for the region and the future of pan-Arabism, yet at no point does Humphreys even mention them.

In Chapter Four, Humphreys sets out to shatter the image, deeply ingrained in the American popular imagination, of the irrational Middle Eastern dictator driven by anti-Western hatred. He does so effectively as he examines three defining moments in the region’s history: Gamal Abdel Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal in July 1956, Ayatollah Khomeini’s support for the seizure of the U.S. embassy by revolutionary Iranian students in November 1979, and Saddam Hussein’s decision to invade Kuwait in August 1990. In the West, each of these episodes provided fodder for what Humphreys calls “the myth of the Middle East madman.” Yet, as he shows, the decisions of Nasser, Khomeini and Hussein were all perfectly rational when analyzed in the context of the goals that these leaders sought to accomplish, the constraints under which they operated and the options they confronted. That all three heads of state used emotional language and fiery rhetoric does not mean they were driven by it, merely that they sought to harness popular support through it while they concentrated on “well-defined, concrete goals, which they pursued with carefully calculated strategies” (p. 111). In the end, moreover, both Nasser and Khomeini achieved their objectives, in the short term at least. And while it is true that Saddam Hussein badly miscalculated, with catastrophic consequences for his country, that does not mean that he acted in an irrational manner. As Humphreys reminds us, the assumptions on which Saddam Hussein proceeded – that the United States would not go to war over Kuwait; that economic sanctions were the most likely response and that they were unlikely to work; that if armed hostilities were to erupt, Iraq could force the United States into a long, protracted and bloody war; that U.S. resolve would quickly diminish as “body bags begin to come home”; that the “Arab street” would erupt in anger; etc. – were widely shared by most Middle East experts in this country.

In Chapter Five, “Military Dictatorship and Political Tradition in the Middle East,” Humphreys demonstrates the lack of historical continuity between modern-day military rulers and the warlords who dominated the region in medieval times. He does so by highlighting the modest social origins of the military figures who have often set the tone for Arab politics since the 1950s, and by noting that their rise to power was the product of the distinct political and social circumstances that prevailed in the region between the 1940s and 1960s. That is certainly true, but the audience for this book would have been better served by a more comprehensive presentation of some of the key aspects of the military’s prominent role in contemporary Middle Eastern society and politics. The author does not even touch upon such critical issues as the overarching political role of the military in Algeria, Turkey and Israel; the dramatic growth in these three countries, as well as in Iran and Egypt, of powerful military-industrial complexes that operate as economic enclaves; changing military-civilian relations across the region; or the central, but historically sensitive, relationship between the military and monarchies such as Morocco and Jordan.

Chapters Six through Ten focus on various aspects of Islam’s impact on Middle Eastern society and politics. Chapter Six shows that even a quick survey of Islamic texts and history belies the often-heard claim that “Islam makes no distinction between religion and politics.” Chapter Seven discusses the extent to which Islamic scriptures, as well as the historical experience of Muslim societies, point to a distinct Islamic pattern of politics. Chapter Eight examines the concept of Jihad and its manifestations through the centuries, while Chapter Nine analyzes the place of women in Islam and Islamic history. Chapter Ten, finally, aims to determine whether a fully developed doctrine of human rights can be identified in Islamic thought.

Taken as a whole, these chapters demonstrate the author’s solid grasp of Islamic history, his field of expertise, and are particularly effective at debunking Western stereotypes about Islam. Unfortunately, the points they develop tend to be presented in a disjointed and almost haphazard manner, while the author’s conclusions are often tentative. Even more problematic is Humphreys’s overwhelming focus on Quranic texts and historical times. This scriptural-historical approach leaves him poorly equipped to provide the reader with a feel for the realities of the region at the beginning of the twenty-first century. For instance, in the chapter entitled “Women in Public Life,” one would have hoped for some discussion of contemporary women’s groups, their struggles and the dynamism they have displayed from Algeria to Yemen in the past decade. Similarly, the chapter on human rights does not even attempt to present concrete, ongoing human-rights struggles in the Middle East and North Africa. Not a single one of the region’s many active human-rights organizations is mentioned.

Similarly, Humphreys’s coverage of the relationship between Islam and politics pays a great deal of attention to Quranic injunctions and Islamic history but tells us very little about contemporary Islamic movements – how they recruit and operate, their social base, the strategies they pursue or the changing coalitions of interests they reflect. As a result, the discussion of this issue seems almost disconnected from today’s realities. Yet another critical set of questions ignored by Humphreys relates to how power holders should deal with Islamist oppositional movements: Deny movements access to the electoral process or let them in? Which strategies have proven more effective thus far: exclusion/repression or integration/dialogue? Does inclusion promote pragmatism and responsible behavior by Islamist leaders or make them more reluctant to compromise? Finally, Humphreys writes as if we were still in the 1980s, when it was indeed possible to speak of a “resurgence” of political Islam. In fact, the latter has suffered repeated and very serious setbacks, especially since the mid-1990s.

In short, in his discussion of Islam as in many others throughout the book, Humphreys’s analysis seems incomplete and out-of-step with recent developments (on page 198, he states that “in Algeria, the FLN of course is the regime”). Between Memory and Desire also omits too many key themes to meet its stated goal of providing the general reader with an introduction to the region today. It thereby displays a shortcoming often found in volumes that take on the daunting task of making sense of a vast, complex and diverse region undergoing tremendous change: it overemphasizes certain aspects (not always those that are most significant) while ignoring far too many critical trends, including globalization – the subject of heated debate in the Arab world.

But Humphreys most glaring omission may be the failure to examine the various efforts at political liberalization that have taken place in the Arab world for more than a decade. A reader can complete this book without even a general idea of where such democratization experiments have taken place, how far they have gone, the constraints under which they have unfolded, why so many of them have faltered, and what their future might be. For a book that identifies as one of the crucial issues in the region today “the unending and as yet fruitless search for systems of government that can command the loyalty and support of the region’s people” (p. 261) and that repeatedly defines one of its main themes as the ongoing struggle of Middle Easterners to achieve freedom and material prosperity, this is a major shortcoming indeed. Compounding this problem are sweeping statements that exaggerate historical continuities and convey a misleading impression of polities that remain impervious to change, as when Humphreys states that “in many ways the political systems of the Middle East still remain where they were back in 1975, and with many of the same actors” (p. 267). The author repeatedly stresses “the authoritarian tendency” or “pull toward authoritarianism” of a region “where authoritarianism and dictatorship are unusually vigorous” (p. 59) but fails to pay any real attention to the significant steps toward democracy that have taken place in the Arab world since about 1989.

Yet another topic critical to the future of the region that is not even broached is the likely impact of the ongoing generational shift in leadership from Morocco to Bahrain. Of course, this book was completed in 1998, before the death of Jordan’s King Hussein (February 1999), Bahrain’s Emir Sheikh Isa al-Khalifa (March 1999), Morocco’s King Hassan (July 1999) and Syria’s Hafiz Asad (June 2000). But this changing of the guard, which will only accelerate in the years to come, had long been in the order of things. It also has been a prime topic of discussion among Middle Eastern experts for several years and thus would have deserved at least some attention. Finally, Humphreys repeatedly downplays the level of institutionalization and resiliency achieved by most regimes in the region, while exaggerating their patrimonial character. On one occasion, he writes that “the political system of each country is built around the particular individual who has founded it and keeps it going .... Almost every regime in the Middle East is vulnerable to a heart attack or an assassin’s bullet” (p. 26). This seems overstated, at best. In neither Egypt nor Algeria – where the president died of an assassin’s bullet in, respectively, October 1981 and June 1992 – was a military-based regime seriously endangered. Similarly, in Bahrain and Syria – where rulers who had been in power since 1961 and 1970, respectively, each recently died of a heart attack – the leadership transition was quite smooth. In Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini’s death in 1989 (also of a heart attack) certainly did not threaten the survival of the Islamic Republic. And in both Jordan and Morocco, the transfer of power to the crown prince was not only uneventful, but appears to have strengthened the regime.

In the end, however, this book’s many shortcomings should not detract from its strengths. In an easily accessible style, Between Memory and Desire summarizes some of the knowledge accumulated by a prominent scholar of Islamic history over more than 30 years of teaching and research on the Middle East. Though it breaks no new ground, it can help the general reader approach the region in ways that are free from many of the misconceptions and stereotypes about it that are unfortunately all too prevalent in American society.