A Line in the Sand: The Anglo-French Struggle for the Middle East, 1914-1948 - Hardcover

Barr, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393070654 ISBN 13: 9780393070651

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012

Synopsis

The untold history of the French-British rivalry that shaped the Middle East, from Lawrence of Arabia to the violent birth of Israel.

It was the middle of World War I. Two men―one, a visionary British politician (Mark Sykes), the other, a veteran French diplomat (François Georges-Picot)―secretly agreed to divide the Middle East. Britain would have “mandates” in newly created Palestine, Transjordan, and Iraq; France in Lebanon and Syria. For the next thirty years, this divide would make uneasy neighbors of two great powers and irreparably shape the Middle East. James Barr combs recently declassified French and British government archives and unearths a shocking secret war and its powerful effect on the local Arabs and Jews. He follows politicians, diplomats, and spies through intrigue and espionage to show us T. E. Lawrence’s stealth guerrilla terror campaigns, and he journeys behind closed doors to discover why Britain courted the Zionist movement. Meticulously well researched and character-driven, A Line in the Sand crescendos with the violent birth of Israel, all along the way brimming with insight into a historically volatile region. 30 black-and-white photographs and maps

About this title

About the Author:

James Barr is the author of Setting the Desert on Fire. During the research for A Line in the Sand he was a Visiting Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford. He lives in London.

Review:

An outstanding, revealing, and disturbing glimpse behind the closed doors of power politics. — Booklist

Lively and entertaining. . . . [Barr] has thrown some light on hitherto unexplored corners. — Financial Times

Starred review. Barr’s extensive archival research, evocative historical vignettes, and a superb sense of narrative pacing produce a first-rate work. — Publishers Weekly

Combines the narrative pace of a spy novel with meticulous archival research. — Eugene Rogan, author of The Arabs: A History

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0393070654
• ISBN 13: 9780393070651
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464