The Long Shadow
Culture and Politics in the Middle East

by Daniel Pipes
New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1989
Paperback edition: Transaction, 1990

An acclaimed examination of key 1980s issues and events of the Middle East in the context of the region's powerful historical forces. The essays deal with five general topics: Islam and public life, the Persian Gulf, the Arab-Israeli conflict, terrorism, and American interaction with the region.

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Critics on The Long Shadow

"The book is a treasure trove of insights on Middle Eastern affairs"
- Sol Schindler, The Washington Times, March 9, 1989

"The Long Shadow is a provocative and insightful tour through the pitfalls of Middle East politics, history and culture."
- Steven L. Spiegel, The Wall Street Journal, August 2, 1989

"The book provides, in a single volume, a great deal of information on many important issues relating to the Middle East... It is recommended reading"
- Farzeen Nasri, Perspective, Summer 1989

"Here is an entertaining and informative volume which establishes this well-known essayist as an important and authoritative commentator on all aspects of politics and policy affecting the Middle East... And - astonishingly - the book as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts... Pipes' method is a powerful statement in favor of knowledge about the language, culture, and history of the peoples about whom one is writing, especially in the Middle East... The chapters flow in a thoroughly logical and coherent fashion and they produce two central themes... Long before the position of the Muslims of Soviet Central Asia were making headlines, Pipes was already predicting their emergence from a quasi-colonial status...
- Middle East Insight, December 1989

"This is a book consisting of twenty-two essays written by a practiced hand. It represents, on a whole, a deft performance by a professional historian...A book of such breadth and variety, covering such a wide range of interests, cannot be conveniently summarized or reduced to a single formula... readers already familiar with Pipes's occasional pieces will be grateful to find them here assembled in a single volume, to be read and enjoyed anew, while others who may not yet have come across his work as a publicist are bound to be impressed by the dazzling performance of a writer of formidable intellect and sharp critical acumen."
- Alain Silvera, MESA Bulletin, 1989

"What distinguishes this volume from the hundreds of monographs on the Middle East is Pipes' successful attempt to bring specialized topics and areas of research to the general reader... a valuable, penetrating overview of the major tensions and conflicts of the Middle East."
- Paul Kerbel, Conservative Judaism, Fall 1990

"22 papers and essays collected in The Long Shadow... are valuable precisely in that they allow the reader the perspective needed in observing and appraising a situation so much in flux... The essays and papers collected in The Long Shadow... are all instructive... and some present surprises even for scholars of this region and its developments."
- N.B. Argaman, The Jerusalem Post, April 26, 1991