The Arabs

A History

By: Eugene Rogan

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

In this definitive history of the modern Arab world, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan draws extensively on Arab sources and texts to place the Arab experience in its crucial historical context for the first time. Tracing five centuries of Arab history, Rogan reveals that there was an age when the Arabs set the rules for the rest of the world. Today, however, the Arab world's sense of subjection to external powers carries vast consequences for both the region and Westerners who attempt to control it.

Updated with a new epilogue, The Arabs is an invaluable, groundbreaking work of history.

©2009 Eugene Rogan; revised introduction and postscript copyright 2016 by Eugene Rogan (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Rogan eruditely furnishes Western readers with a background to current events." ( Booklist)

A must listen for anyone interested in current events

This book is an excellent overview of Arab history and should be listened to by anyone interested in, and confused by, current events in the Middle East. The only way to understand the present is to study the past. Well written, and well narrated.

Amazing capturing storyline!

Where does The Arabs rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is one of the most captivating books I've listened to. I was skeptical about a 27 hour long book but I truly wanted this book to be even longer.

The storyline was so well done and fair. Zooming in on individual stories and zooming back out to the larger macro-political view.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Despite this being factual based, the book captured many "character" like stories throughout. For example, the story of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Muhammad Ali.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Glimpse of hope in a dark past.

Any additional comments?

Would have loved to hear about some of the major revolutions around the Arab world such as Omar Al Moukhtar and Sultan Basha Al Atrach but the book had so much to offer to offset this.

Very interesting and informative

Really enjoyed the book. The history regarding the second Iraq war was at best incomplete and one sided, and at worst biased to reflect the author's political views. The result was contradiction and confusion. The book was excellent up to the epilogue and the post script where it lost some of it's historical integrity.

Learned much about the Arabs

Found the book intense as it criticized the US, but understand that some criticism is due. It's easy, however, to find fault looking back. Nonetheless, I learns a lot and have modified my position regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A solid book!

A good read for anyone interested in Middle East history and affairs. It’s mostly fair to all sides with only a slight lean

Great book!

While trying to learn Arabic I wanted to take the time to also understand the history of the region and this was the right book for that. The narrator is great. The flow and transitions are smooth. And If you’re interested in learning a few words by accident then you’ll love it.

Disappointing Choice of Narrator

While the book is fantastic (well written, with good flow, centers the experience of Arab people in the telling of our story), I couldn’t help but be put off by the narrator constantly butchering every single Arabic word or name.
Was there no other voice actors who are capable of basic Arabic pronunciation to take on a project like this?
I couldn’t help but feel spited by the fact that a book about Arabs and their history was read by a guy who flawlessly pronounced every French name but nuked all Arabic names. I mean ffs he even stumbled on the most basic city names.
It made me feel like a foreigner listening to my own story. Please do better next time.

An Important Read

An ambitious book that covers a lot of ground and lays a reasonable foundation for understanding the applicable regions and peoples. An important and worthy read.

Good book would be better if not biased

Lots of good information but the book is biased against Israel and doesn’t tell the entire story. One point of view only

Concise and comprehensive

A concise history of the Middle East for the past 200 hundred years, factual, unbiased and informative