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Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East

By: Robin Wright
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Penguin Press
ISBN: 1594201110
ISBN-13: 9781594201110
Released: 28 Feb 2008
RRP: £15.05
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Customer Reviews

A reporter of the best kind - By: Brian Griffith, 21 Apr 2008
For three decades Robin Wright has worked in the Middle East as the best kind of reporter -- a messenger who reallly listens to people & conveys their messages straight. In this book she draws on a vast network of people who trust her to convey the real experience of Middle Easterners struggling for a better future. She introduces numerous local heroes from Morocco to Iran, who have risked themselves standing up to despotic rulers. Where the West once supported conservative Muslim rulers against communists, Wright finds that many of the strongest voices for fairness & liberty are socialists or communists. Where the West has backed Muslim autocrats against Islamists, she finds a new wave of popular movements for religious values have become the strongest challlengers to autocracy. Wright honestly conveys the difficulties & courage of these activists. She also conveys their despair over the destructive role of US interventionism in the region. As Syrian dissident Yassin Haj Saleh puts it, "However opposed Syrians are to our own regime, they now distrust the Americans more".


I think this is the kind of direct dialogue with local leaders that we need most from our news professionals.