Books > History > World history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945
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Lords of the Desert - Britain's Struggle with America to Dominate the Middle East (Hardcover)
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Lords of the Desert - Britain's Struggle with America to Dominate the Middle East (Hardcover)
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List price R625
Loot Price R517
Discovery Miles 5 170
You Save R108 (17%)
Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available.
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Guardian Book of the Day New Statesman Book of the Year History
Today Book of the Year Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year
BBC History Magazine Book of the Year 'Bustles impressively with
detail and anecdote' -Sunday Times 'Consistently fascinating' -The
Spectator 'Beautifully written and deeply researched' -The Observer
'Barr draws on a rich and varied trove of sources to knit a
sequence of dramatic episodes into an elegant whole. Great events
march through these pages' -Wall Street JournalUpon victory in
1945, Britain still dominated the Middle East. She directly ruled
Palestine and Aden, was the kingmaker in Iran, the power behind the
thrones of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, and protected the sultan of Oman
and the Gulf sheikhs. But her motives for wanting to dominate this
crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa were changing. Where
'imperial security' - control of the route to India - had once been
paramount, now oil was an increasingly important factor. So, too,
was prestige. Ironically, the very end of empire made control of
the Middle East precious in itself: on it hung Britain's claim to
be a great power. Unable to withstand Arab and Jewish nationalism,
within a generation the British were gone. But that is not the full
story. What ultimately sped Britain on her way was the
uncompromising attitude of the United States, which was determined
to displace the British in the Middle East. The British did not
give in gracefully to this onslaught. Using newly declassified
records and long-forgotten memoirs, including the diaries of a key
British spy, James Barr tears up the conventional interpretation of
this era in the Middle East, vividly portraying the tensions
between London and Washington, and shedding an uncompromising light
on the murkier activities of a generation of American and British
diehards in the region, from the battle of El Alamein in 1942 to
Britain's abandonment of Aden in 1967. Reminding us that the Middle
East has always served as the arena for great power conflict, this
is the tale of an internecine struggle in which Britain would
discover that her most formidable rival was the ally she had
assumed would be her closest friend. Reviews for A Line In The
Sand:- 'Masterful' -The Spectator 'With superb research and telling
quotations, Barr has skewered the whole shabby story' -The Times
'Lively and entertaining. He has scoured the diplomatic archives of
the two powers and has come up with a rich haul that brings his
narrative to life' -Financial Times
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