What Went Wrong

Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response

By: Bernard Lewis

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

For many centuries, the world of Islam was at 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 on the battlefield and in 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.

©2001 Bernard Lewis (P)2002 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Arguably the West's most distinguished scholar on the Middle East." (Newsweek)
"Lewis has done us all, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, a remarkable service." (The New York Times Book Review)
"An excitingly knowledgeable antidote to today's natural sense of befuddlement." (The Baltimore Sun)
"Replete with the exceptional historical insight that one has come to expect from the world's foremost Islamic scholar." (The Wall Street Journal)

Great place to start

Both Bernard Lewis and Albert Hourani were recommended by my Arabic instructor as being reputable in both the Arab and Western Worlds. This book is brief in comparison to the works of Hourani. I would listen to this first. The narrator does a good job and the material is both interesting and relevant. This is good for both the casual and serious student of history. I’ve listened to all of the works available on Audible by this author and I would recommend them all.

Extremely insightful and exceptionally detailed.

If you could sum up What Went Wrong in three words, what would they be?

Thought provoking, Insightful and historically impartial

Who was your favorite character and why?

No characters.

Have you listened to any of John Lee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Its a work of non-fiction

Any additional comments?

Beautifully read and extremely thought provoking for western reader seeking to understand the historical implications and geo-political history and underpinnings between Christendom and Islam and Western Civilization and Islamic macro views.

Scattered Treasures

The book starts and ends well, but looses its potency in between. I bought the book after seeing Mr. Lewis on CSPAN book review. Let's just say that his CSPAN interview provided more information in a lot less time. I do recognize Mr. Lewis as a western expert on Islam and I will continue to buy his books. I would recommend Karen Armstrong, however, to those who want more substance and a broader understanding.

Can the Islamic world modernize?

A book that should be a basis for thinking about Islam today. Especially the backsliding of Turkey to a fundamentalist past, and the rejection of Ataturk’s reforms

Illuminating

The narrative was lush and the anecdotes enthralling. The information dense style requires multiple listening for full absorption. I had trouble with the time lines as the narrative whipsawed across centuries, leaving me with no full understanding of what happened when. The author switches between saying for example "in the sixteen hundreds" to saying " in the seventeenth century" which is saying the same thing but requires a mental switch on my part in order to follow. The mongol conquest of the fourteenth century was not covered at all. This is more than a minor omission. I now feel the need to go get another book that covers this topic. This book in totality is very informative if a little clumsy. It has the feel of an exceedingly smart author, unaccustomed to dealing with lay people. The treatment of the topic was very well balanced and has no hint of partisanship, nationalism or religious bent. The author is blunt without bludgeoning.

Production Company Omitted Key Paragraphs

The author’s proposed solution and answer to the question “What Went Wrong?” is omitted from the narration. Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this. The two missing paragraphs are at the end of the book, on the very last page, and the production company left it out of the narration.

Although there are later editions to this book, the main text was not revised. The later editions do list an Afterword in light of 9/11, which is excellent. But the main text was not altered according to copyright section. That the production company left out perhaps the most important paragraph of the book is mind boggling. The solution the author proposes involves the lack of freedoms in such societies/states.

Anyway, this is not an easy read or listen. Thankfully it’s short. In fact, I found it so difficult - due to style, my lack of familiarity with Islam, and all the terms thrown around - I set it aside half way through. Two weeks later I finished it and I’m very glad I did. A brilliant and balanced analysis.

A great book

Must reading for anyone who wants more than a superficial understanding of the Muslim problem.

Thinking you are great will guarantee you are not

Those who believe in "American Exceptionalism" need to read this book. If you hold up the foam #1 hand and think you have nothing to learn from others, you will guaranteed your slide into ignorance and irrelevance. This is the general premise of "What Went Wrong." The Arab world 1,000-years ago was open and a place of learning. They were so advanced in relative terms to their peers in the West that they felt they had nothing to gain from learning from them. They rejected Western knowledge and understanding for so long that they fell behind.

There are likely other explanations, like a slide into religious fundamentalism, the curse of oil, etc., but this book looks back further and the parallels for personal or cultural understanding are valid. If you want to be the best, you can't have an ego that gets bruised when you are wrong. After all, the more willing you are to be wrong, the more right you will be in the future.

genuine help

I got to this book through an essay by Martin Amis. I learned a great deal from it and begin to understand the dilemmas and obstacles from the history and structure of Islam. I would recommend this book easily and frequently. John Lee is often too heavy and distinctive for me as narrator. In this book he was perfect.

poor flow of content

the flow of content of this book started by following a linear timeline then switched to go by topic and frequently bounced between the two making the portion of time you are currently reading in difficult to comprehend