A Line in the Sand

Britain, France and the struggle that shaped the Middle East

By: James Barr

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, two men secretly agreed to divide the Middle East between them. Sir Mark Sykes was a visionary politician; François Georges-Picot a diplomat with a grudge. The deal they struck, which was designed to relieve tensions that threatened to engulf the Entente Cordiale, drew a line in the sand from the Mediterranean to the Persian frontier. Territory north of that stark line would go to France; land south of it, to Britain. Against the odds their pact survived the war to form the basis for the postwar division of the region into five new countries Britain and France would rule. The creation of Britain's 'mandates' of Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq, and France's in Lebanon and Syria, made the two powers uneasy neighbours for the following 30 years.

Through a stellar cast of politicians, diplomats, spies and soldiers, including T. E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, A Line in the Sand vividly tells the story of the short but crucial era when Britain and France ruled the Middle East. It explains exactly how the old antagonism between these two powers inflamed the more familiar modern rivalry between the Arabs and the Jews and ultimately led to war between the British and the French in 1941 and between the Arabs and the Jews in 1948.

In 1946, after many years of intrigue and espionage, Britain finally succeeded in ousting France from Lebanon and Syria and hoped that, having done so, it would be able to cling on to Palestine. Using newly declassified papers from the British and French archives, James Barr brings this overlooked clandestine struggle back to life and reveals, for the first time, the stunning way in which the French finally got their revenge.

©2011 James Barr (P)2018 Simon & Schuster, UK

Excellent performance and interesting content

The audiobook is very well narrated and the book covers a lot of ground without omitting any detail. It manages to deal with the big picture as well as the individual actors within it and is sure to leave any listener well-informed but also deeply troubled as the effects of the power struggle between Britain and France continue to reverberate to this day. But the book is also relevant to the global power struggles we see today as the same conditions - mutual distrust, sacrificing global politics to domestic concerns and the inability or unwillingness to consider the other party’s perspective - exist as much today as they did back then.

good research on the previously ignored topic

it was well researched and well written book on the subject conventional historiography somehow refused to recognize. a lot of new facts and details

Really enjoyable book

I found this book additive. Really enjoyed it. I learnt a great deal from this book.