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Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East
by Patrick Seale
Product Group: Book
Publisher: I B Tauris & Co Ltd (1988)
ISBN: 1850430616
EAN: 9781850430612
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 576 pages
Edition: illustrated edition
SKU: D4061113e
Condition: Good Plus
Comments: Asad of Syria: The struggle for the Middle East - Hardback with DustJacket - edgewear and small tears in DJ at edges - pages clean and unmarked - binding tight and solid International Shipping avaliable - Please email for rates
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
"This is a book in the finest tradition of investigative scholarship. The research is awesome. . . . Seale's great strength is his ability to explain the confusing kaleidoscopic nature of Middle Eastern diplomacy. He understands the game being played and also knows the players. . . . [An] impressive book."--Los Angeles Times Book Review
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Customer Reviews
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Easy Reading!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2009-11-11
must say, it changes my prospective about many historical events in the area! Its a good book to start your own debate about the period during Asad's life. It gives you a insight about the man's human side and struggles to control his destiny...I loved the book...
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Not the book to read if you're only reading one book on Asad
Rating  (3)
Date: 2009-06-23
Reader's may be struck by Seale's strongly partisan (and sometimes implausible) point-of-view. Asad - and the Arab world in general - are trusting innocents. Their naive good faith is betrayed by the devious, lying Henry Kissinger, and the vicious, land-hungry Israel. It helps to bear in mind that Seale was able to get extensive interviews with Asad and other in his circle for this book - people with no experience or interest in less-than-reverent treatment by the media, and people who would never have given such access to someone they didn't know was firmly on their side.
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Superlative Study of a Syrian Statesman
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-08-23
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is such a superb work, that the title of this review warranted alliteration. Still pretty much one of the best works on modern Syria: simultaneously a biography, a history, and an analysis of inter-state machinations in the Middle East. Nice narrative flow, much of it based on interviews with the persons involved, including Asad himself. I really can't recommend this enough. Anyone with even a remotely passing interest in the Middle East should read this book. A pity Seale didn't produce more works as this and his other work "The Struggle for Syria", which covers an earlier period, are so freakin' amazing! I also recommend, as a companion piece "The Lion of Damascus" by David Lesch, a biography of Asad's son, the current Syrian president, Bashar al-'Asad.
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Important but flawed
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-07-16
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is important for anyone trying to learn about the Middle East, but I agree with other reviewers that the book is flawed. It is very biased and paints Asad in a much more positive light than he deserves. Asad and his regime were responsible for many atrocities and has contributed to the instability of the region, but Mr. Seale simply glosses over many of these crimes.
Mr. Seale's description of Asad's attack against the Syrian city of Hama is cursory at best. By all accounts I have read Hama was devastated, and thousands of people were killed, maimed or displaced, but the account given here doesn't say anything about the human suffering. Not only that but Seale seems to justify and even approve of the action because of the attacks that emanated from this city.
Asad was not a humanitarian and his regime was extremely oppressive. As with any authoritarian regime Asad enriched cronies to the detriment of the Syrian people. He killed and tortured his own people. These facts seemed to be omitted from this book. I have no idea why this was left out, but it skews the book and leaves the reader an irrevocably flawed book. This book also casts Israel as the main instigator in all the areas troubles. This book will leave the uninformed reader with the impression that had the region simply followed Asad then all would have been well. The fact is that Israel does in fact shoulder some blame for the current situation, but they certainly do not deserve all the blame.
With that said the book is still important, and deserves the 4 star rating I gave it. Syria is a very important nation and the more we know about it the better informed we will be of the entire situation. This book contributes to the readers greater understanding of this region as long as they understand that the book is biased. The nature of the Asad regime means there will be little information available to readers, so any information is important.
This book is well written and the author has obviously done a lot of research and got to know Asad very well. There is a lot of important information in here, but all readers should come into this book understanding its flaws right from the beginning.
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An impressive, if heavily biased, scholarly work
Rating (3)
Date: 2007-07-06
7 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is already nearing 20 years in age, so much has already been said about its portrayal of modern Near East geopolitics. Anyone interested in this subject matter should read this book, as it is provides valuable insight into events within Syria, throughout the region, and across the world that shaped the relationships between Arab states themselves and with Israel as witnessed in the late 20th century. Much has occured since and it is interesting to speculate how Seale would have woven into the narrative, among other major events, Jordan's 1994 treaty with Israel, as Assad long prided himself on thwarting such an agreement. (Granted, Seale's ongoing journalistic activities offer plenty of insight into his perspectives on most any regional developments.)
Seale's research is exhaustive and paints a fascinating picture of a man who seized and retained power in a complex, volatile country and who thrust himself into one of the most divisive and enigmatic conflicts facing the world today. Unfortunately, this book must be regarded as the romantic (harsher critics may say sycophantic) chronicling of Syrian and Arab nationalism that it is. There can be no doubt that Seale is vehemently opposed to Israeli values and worldview, and to a lesser degree those of the United states and other Western powers. Seale characterizes Israel as continually exercising an almost Svengali influence on the West, able to unilaterally bend the wills of its more powerful allies and impose nefarious designs upon the entire Arab world. His attitude toward terrorism is forgiving to say the least, not to mention his argument that the West's fear of terrorism is a function of Israeli "psychological warfare" rather than a true international reality and utmost national security priority. Seale is also reluctant to hold Assad accountable for his diplomatic failures and military defeats, but is rather wont to characterize the venerable pan-Arab leader as simply a victim of external circumstance.
So long as one is able to distill much of these biases (or at least acknowledge their influence on the reporting), Seale's book constitutes a uniquely detailed survey of modern Syrian history in the vital context of regional conflicts that have defined it.
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