What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response

Bernard Lewis

Jan 2002 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

For many centuries, the world of Islam was in the forefront of human achievement--the foremost military and economic power in the world, the leader in the arts and sciences of civilization. Christian Europe, a remote land beyond its northwestern frontier, was seen as an outer darkness of barbarism and unbelief from which there was nothing to learn or to fear. And then everything changed, as the previously despised West won victory after victory, first in the battlefield and the marketplace, then in almost every aspect of public and even private life. In this intriguing volume, Bernard Lewis examines the anguished reaction of the Islamic world as it tried to understand why things had changed--how they had been overtaken, overshadowed, and to an increasing extent dominated by the West. Lewis provides a fascinating portrait of a culture in turmoil. He shows how the Middle East turned its attention to understanding European weaponry and military tactics, commerce and industry, government and diplomacy, education and culture. Lewis highlights the striking differences between the Western and Middle Eastern cultures from the 18th to the 20th centuries through thought-provoking comparisons of such things as Christianity and Islam, music and the arts, the position of women, secularism and the civil society, the clock and the calendar. Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studies," Bernard Lewis is one of the West's foremost authorities on Islamic history and culture. In this striking volume, he offers an incisive look at the historical relationship between the Middle East and Europe.

Ratings and reviews

A promising but depressingly superficial book. Lewis points, correctly, to differences in Western versus Islamic ideas of individual and property rights, but largely confines his discussion to times long after the two systems parted ways. The formative decisions were made in the Middle Ages when Aquinas and Al-Ghazzali set the tones for their respective societies. But even then, Aquinas had lots of opponents and Al-Ghazzali was far from the fundamentalist he is often caricatured as being. So why did Aquinas and his followers win, and why did Islamic society spin Al-Ghazzali's teachings the way it did? Here, and not in the Ottoman court, is where the crucial decisions were made, and there is virtually nothing about it in Lewis' book.

Definitely not worth $32. For 182 page e-book??? His other books are all 4.99 - 13.99. I assume it must be used as a textbook at certain universities, so it has "captive buyers," so to speak.

I'd recommend this book to everyone interested in the matter of confrontration between West and Middle East, yet not wanting to study long and broad history. Lewis focuses his attention mostly on Ottoman Empire, a major force influencing life in Europe during ages. Fall of Byzantine Empire, occupation of Greece - the cradle of western civilization, many wars, successful defense of Europe during the siege of Vienna, decline and finally total dissolution of Empire. This is what we know from history lessons. But what happened behind the curtains? Was there a diplomacy? Did curious ones travel to the other side? How were cultural influences used to improve own life? Bernard Lewis explains it all, higlighting differences between both cultures. Comparing histories of two great religions, he reaches the sources of great change which happened during last few ages: rapid development of christian civilization and relative stagnation of islamic world. Definitely, one of the most important readings of the last decade.

About the author

Bernard Lewis is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus at Princeton University. A highly eminent authority on Middle Eastern history, the author of over two dozen books, most notably The Arabs in History, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, The Political Language of Islam, The Muslim Discovery of Europe and The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2000 Years.