The Middle East

A REVIEW in these pages some five years ago of current literature on the Middle East' achieved notoriety as having one of the largest collections of references to appear in the Geographical Review; it also evoked the editorial comment Of making many books there is no end. Today the situation is in no wise changed; rather, the increasing attention of the United States to problems in the Middle East is resulting in an even larger volume of publication. We may, however, note one significant development: along with the general studies largely devoted to political and social aspects, which still attract the interest of most writers,2 more specific regional details are receiving greater notice. As the broad framework of Middle Eastern geography becomes filled in, emphasis is shifting to specialist research, more restricted, but also more profound and exact. The trend is particularly apparent in a number of physical studies that have recently appeared; and though some of these are not of great length, all are significant as introducing new techniques, critical methods, and a more detailed approach

Archaeology · Geography · Middle East · African history and culture analysis · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies