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The Dream Palace of the Arabs
- A Generation's Odyssey
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
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The Dream Palace of the Arabs
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Publisher's summary
From Fouad Ajami, an acclaimed author and chronicler of Arab politics, comes a compelling account of how a generation of Arab intellectuals tried to introduce cultural renewals in their homelands through the forces of modernity and secularism. Ultimately, they came to face disappointment, exile, and, on occasion, death.
Brilliantly weaving together the strands of a tumultuous century in Arab political thought, history, and poetry, Ajami takes us from the ruins of Beirut's once glittering metropolis to the land of Egypt, where struggle rages between a modernist impulse and an Islamist insurgency, from Nasser's pan-Arab nationalist ambitions to the emergence of an uneasy Pax Americana in Arab lands, from the triumphalism of the Gulf War to the continuing anguished debate over the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords.
For anyone who seeks to understand the Middle East, here is an insider's unflinching analysis of the collision between intellectual life and political realities in the Arab world today.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 372
With vivid story-telling, extensive historical research, and on-the-ground reporting, Ghattas dispels accepted truths about a region she calls home. She explores how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, once allies and twin pillars of US strategy in the region, became mortal enemies after 1979. She shows how they used and distorted religion in a competition that went well beyond geopolitics. Feeding intolerance, suppressing cultural expression, and encouraging sectarian violence from Egypt to Pakistan, the war for cultural supremacy led to many events.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Unveiling the darkness of the Middle East
- By Matty D on 02-18-20
By: Kim Ghattas
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The Case for Nationalism
- How It Made Us Powerful, United, and Free
- By: Rich Lowry
- Narrated by: Roy Worley
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
In The Case for Nationalism, Lowry explains how nationalism was central to the American Project. It fueled the American Revolution and the ratification of the Constitution. It preserved the country during the Civil War. It led to the expansion of the American nation’s territory and power, and eventually to our invaluable contribution to creating an international system of self-governing nations.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Truth does matter !
- By CFC on 11-06-19
By: Rich Lowry
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Maoism
- A Global History
- By: Julia Lovell
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4 out of 5 stars 79
For decades, the West has dismissed Maoism as an outdated historical and political phenomenon. Since the 1980s, China seems to have abandoned the utopian turmoil of Mao’s revolution in favor of authoritarian capitalism. But Mao and his ideas remain central to the People’s Republic and the legitimacy of its Communist government. With disagreements and conflicts between China and the West on the rise, the need to understand the political legacy of Mao is urgent and growing. And the power and appeal of Maoism have extended far beyond China.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Occasional Bias Revealed
- By Matthew Miller on 09-03-19
By: Julia Lovell
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The Craft
- How the Freemasons Made the Modern World
- By: John Dickie
- Narrated by: Simon Slater
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 195
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 161
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 161
Founded in London in 1717 as a way of binding men in fellowship, Freemasonry proved so addictive that within two decades it had spread across the globe. Masonic influence became pervasive. Under George Washington, the Craft became a creed for the new American nation. Masonic networks held the British empire together. Under Napoleon, the Craft became a tool of authoritarianism and then a cover for revolutionary conspiracy. Both the Mormon Church and the Sicilian mafia owe their origins to Freemasonry.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best book about Freemasonry out there.
- By Isaac Pea on 02-19-21
By: John Dickie
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From the Ruins of Empire
- The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia
- By: Pankaj Mishra
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
A little more than a century ago, as the Japanese navy annihilated the giant Russian one at the Battle of Tsushima, original thinkers across Asia, working independently, sought to frame a distinctly Asian intellectual tradition that would inform and inspire the continent's anticipated rise to dominance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Breathtaking Scale, Cohesion and Vision of Asian History
- By Oscar C. Huerta on 03-18-19
By: Pankaj Mishra
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A Short History of Russia
- How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin
- By: Mark Galeotti
- Narrated by: Mark Galeotti
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 177
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 151
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 148
Russia is a country with no natural borders, no single ethnic group, no true central identity. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it has been subject to invasion by outsiders, from Vikings to Mongols, from Napoleon’s French to Hitler’s Germans. In order to forge an identity, it has mythologized its past to unite its people and to signal strength to outsiders. In A Short History of Russia, Mark Galeotti explores the history of this fascinating, glorious, desperate, and exasperating country.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful short history
- By Tad Davis on 01-19-21
By: Mark Galeotti
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The Islamic Enlightenment
- The Struggle Between Faith and Reason: 1798 to Modern Times
- By: Christopher de Bellaigue
- Narrated by: Charles Armstrong
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
This absorbing account of the political and social reformations that transformed the lands of Islam during the 19th and early 20th centuries offers a game-changing assessment of the Middle East. Beginning his account in 1798, de Bellaigue demonstrates how the Middle East has long welcomed modern ideals and practices, including the adoption of modern medicine, the emergence of women from seclusion, and the development of democracy.
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4 out of 5 stars
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fascinating story not told.elsewhere in one place
- By Joseph Sullivan on 11-30-21
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A History of Iran
- Empire of the Mind
- By: Michael Axworthy
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 156
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 137
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Story4 out of 5 stars 137
Although frequently vilified, Iran is a nation of great intellectual variety and depth, and one of the oldest continuing civilizations in the world. Its political impact has been tremendous, not only on its neighbors in the Middle East but also throughout the world. From the time of the prophet Zoroaster, to the powerful ancient Persian Empires, to the revolution of 1979, the hostage crisis, and the current standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Michael Axworthy vividly depicts the nation’s rich history.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Lazy Narration
- By Arya Pourtabatabaie on 11-05-16
By: Michael Axworthy
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Arabs
- A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes, and Empires
- By: Tim Mackintosh-Smith
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 25 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 263
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 232
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 232
This kaleidoscopic book covers almost 3,000 years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances. Tracing this process to the origins of the Arabic language, rather than the advent of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith begins his narrative more than a thousand years before Muhammad and focuses on how Arabic, both spoken and written, has functioned as a vital source of shared cultural identity over the millennia.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good book bad narration
- By Anonymous User on 09-18-19
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In Europe's Shadow
- Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond
- By: Robert D. Kaplan
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 119
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Story4 out of 5 stars 120
In Bucharest, Romania's capital, Kaplan discovered that few Westerners were reporting on the country - one of the darkest corners of Europe during the Cold War. In an intense and cinematic travelogue, Kaplan explores the history and culture of the only country in the West where the leading intellectuals have been right-wing rather than left-wing; a country that gave rise to the dictator Ion Antonescu, Hitler's chief foreign accomplice during WWII; a country where the Latin West mixes with the Greek East, producing a fascinating fusion of cultures.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Wrestling with History
- By David on 03-07-16
By: Robert D. Kaplan
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Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,279
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,138
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,130
The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
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The Viking Heart
- How Scandinavians Conquered the World
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 153
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 131
Scandinavia has always been a world apart. For millennia Norwegians, Danes, Finns, and Swedes lived a remote and rugged existence among the fjords and peaks of the land of the midnight sun. But when they finally left their homeland in search of opportunity, these wanderers — including the most famous, the Vikings — would reshape Europe and beyond.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Confused and not worth the time and money
- By Jacob The Dane on 08-16-21
By: Arthur Herman
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Incarnations
- India in Fifty Lives
- By: Sunil Khilnani
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
For all of India's myths, its sea of stories and moral epics, Indian history remains a curiously unpeopled place. In Incarnations, Sunil Khilnani fills that space, recapturing the human dimension of how the world's largest democracy came to be. His trenchant portraits of emperors, warriors, philosophers, film stars, and corporate titans - some famous, some unjustly forgotten - bring feeling, wry humor, and uncommon insight to dilemmas that extend from ancient times to our own.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great listen, the author is biased
- By Anonymous User on 02-15-19
By: Sunil Khilnani
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Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
- By: Yossi Klein Halevi
- Narrated by: Yossi Klein Halevi
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 218
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 185
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 184
Attempting to break the agonizing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli commentator and award-winning author of Like Dreamers directly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Israel 101 - but for Jews
- By GoingGoingGone... on 06-13-18
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Silver, Sword, and Stone
- Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story
- By: Marie Arana
- Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
In this “timely and excellent volume” (NPR) Marie Arana seamlessly weaves these stories with the history of the past millennium to explain three enduring themes that have defined Latin America since pre-Columbian times: the foreign greed for its mineral riches, an ingrained propensity to violence, and the abiding power of religion. Silver, Sword, and Stone combines “learned historical analysis with in-depth reporting and political commentary...[and] an informed and authoritative voice, one that deserves a wide audience” (The New York Times Book Review).
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1 out of 5 stars
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Marie Arana does not Understand Economics
- By Jose on 01-11-21
By: Marie Arana
What listeners say about The Dream Palace of the Arabs
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- ahmad
- 10-23-20
Love of the the old land.
The likes of Bernard Lewis, Edward saiid, Hourani...etc may have known the words but they never captured and encapsulated the tunes and essence of the old land and its stories of beauty and misfortune like Fouad Ajami in this gem. A generous to his peers book written by a sculptor of language. Refreshing mastery of his adopted and chosen language reflected and written by a true "Ibn Balad" son of the land who couldn't escape his heritage fever. To be listened to over and over.
Thank you, Fouad and Michelle
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- chetyarbrough.blog
- 09-01-23
CARE ABOUT ME
After re-listening to Ajami’s book, a major point missed in the first review is Ajami’s poignant and tragic examples of Arab despair in the Middle East. That despair is not about freedom but about care for traditions of the Middle East's ancient and diverse cultures. The monumental discovery of oil roiled religious and ethnic differences in the Middle East. Foreign and local self-interests interfered with the peripatetic freedom of Arab cultures. Adding to that loss of freedom, the discovery of oil changed the relationship between rulers and the ruled.
Leadership that fails to understand and care for all citizens within its borders may last for some years but will ultimately fail. That is the point that is sorely missing in an earlier review of Ajami's insightful history of the Middle East.
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