The Middle East and the United States

Lesch (Middle East history, Trinity U.) and, new to this edition, Haas (political science, Duquesne U.) present a revised and updated edition of a collection exploring US relations in the Middle East from its inceptions during the Woodrow Wilson administration to close to the present time (i.e., the book discusses the initial Obama approach to the region, in ten revised chapters, but doesn't address the popular uprisings of 2011 or NATO's regime change policy in Libya). The contributions address overarching regional and general issues, such as Cold War context and the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as specific events and policies towards individual countries. Altogether, the coverage is both chronologically and regionally comprehensive. The previous edition's focus on the first Gulf War has been eliminated for this new edition and new chapters have been added on the Cold War, the Bush and Obama administrations' approaches to the Arab-Israeli conflict, US-Syrian relations since 2000, ideology and Iran's American policies (1997-2008), and US relations with al Qaeda. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)