Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • The Making of the Modern Middle East

  • A Personal History
  • By: Jeremy Bowen
  • Narrated by: Jeremy Bowen
  • Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (644 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Making of the Modern Middle East

By: Jeremy Bowen
Narrated by: Jeremy Bowen
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

This audiobook is compellingly read by the author, Jeremy Bowen.

A Spectator and New Statesman Book of the Year

Jeremy Bowen, the International Editor of the BBC, has been covering the Middle East since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present. Here, Bowen offers readers a gripping and invaluable guide to the modern Middle East, how it came to be and what its future might hold.

In The Making of the Modern Middle East – in part based on his acclaimed podcast, ‘Our Man in the Middle East’ Bowen takes us on a journey across the Middle East and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders, whether brutal or benign, and he explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control.

Clear throughout is Bowen's deep understanding of the political, cultural and religious differences between countries as diverse as Erdogan’s Turkey, Assad’s Syria, Netanyahu’s Israel and Palestine, whether Hamas-controlled Gaza or the West Bank, and his long experience of covering events in the region.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Jeremy Bowen (P)2022 Macmillan Publishers International Limited
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Good Pop, Bad Pop cover art
The Bottom Billion cover art
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue cover art
Assad or We Burn the Country cover art
Overreach cover art
Children of the Night cover art
Hunting bin Laden cover art
The Shining Path cover art
Looking for the Enemy cover art
The Wrong Enemy cover art
Only Cry for the Living cover art
Cambodia cover art
War in the Age of Trump cover art
Populista cover art
The War Came to Us cover art
Nine Lives cover art

Critic reviews

Arresting . . . excellent, doom-freighted (Justin Marozzi)
Jeremy Bowen is one of the finest journalists and broadcasters of our age - qualities which shine through every page of this superb book. Written with modesty, grace and compassion, his account of 30 years working in the Middle East for the BBC combines his own personal experience with and a rare understanding of what makes this tortured region so dangerously combustible. His judgements are invariably balanced but when they are due he does not shrink from scathing criticisms of the key actors. The result is an illuminating and riveting read. (Jonathan Dimbleby, broadcaster, author and historian)
Bears witness to how lofty dreams of the post-Cold War period crashed and burned ... with deep empathy and understanding of the roots of the conflict (Emma Sky)

What listeners say about The Making of the Modern Middle East

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    554
  • 4 Stars
    69
  • 3 Stars
    14
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    500
  • 4 Stars
    65
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    483
  • 4 Stars
    71
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

interesting and thoughtful

a really interesting look back on the middle east from someone who as spent a majority of his life reporting on it also some very open and honest accounts of the feelings he had and the negative experience Bowen has had in the last 30 years, all in all a very good listen or read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating and depressing in equal measure

Considered bc and balanced background to all that is current happening in the Middle East.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A superb first hand account

Jeremy’s knowledge of the history of the modern middle east and all its disastrous events is second to none in the West. This account is fast moving with personal experiences of many of the big events in the middle east.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Little Room For Optimism

I bought this book after the events of October 7 2023 because I wanted a better understanding of the recent history and events in the various parts of the Middle East and the historical roots of all the various conflicts. It is informative and related by Jeremy Bowen in a way that is understandable for the interested lay person though the multiplicity of factions involved in each of the conflicts can still be bewildering. It is not a book which gives much room for optimism and some of necessary descriptions and details of the aftermath of bombings on people, be they involved in the fighting but more usually civilians caught in the middle are very distressing. Jeremy is an engaging narrator. A worthwhile and memorable read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The clarity of his analysis.

Brilliant insights by an admirably courageous , talented and committed reporter. Recommended for anyone concerned about our future

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing and eye opening

Taking the perspective of one man in the centre of some of the most significant recent events in global history gives a unique insight that can only help develop understanding of the most difficult geopolitical issues currently dominating the news. It is so good that in addition to this audiobook version I have bought a paperback copy and fully intend to revisit it from cover to cover.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good

Very insightful especially at the moment. Thoughtful and helpful in times of complexity. Very well read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Required listening if concerned/interested in Middle East.

An excellent starting point for anyone trying to understand the history and recent developments in tge Middle East. Highly recommended

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thorough, accurate and emotionally challenging

Jeremy Bowen has been in the Middle East for over 30 years. His writing is world class, engaging and flows seamlessly between the geographic and political areas in which he has worked. It's very difficult to listen to this book and retain one's sense of optimism, especially when it's very clear that the beliefs arising from religion, drawn from a few old books are fundamental, a word I use deliberately, to the ongoing disputes and intolerances that fuel insurgencies and the fires of war.

I don't expect anyone to 'enjoy' this book. Apart from Jeremy's reassuring voice it's not a pleasant listening experience. It is, though, a very thorough account of the way things have unfolded since the Middle East became of interest to seafaring nations from the Atlantic, even before the age of oil. If you have a walking/running/driving whilst listening habit, it might be a useful way to fill in some of the gaps we all have in our understanding of the Middle East, especially those who have lived here and continue to make it our home.

I write this from my home in Dubai as a British ex pat.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent - must read

I’m sure this isn’t what he’s aiming for as Jeremy comes across as quite an unassuming man, but wow he is a brave and thoughtful. Really impressive.
A great book covering a lot of complex issues, I’ve listened to it intensively and I think I’ll now start again as it’s so interesting and well put together.
Can’t recommend enough.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!