Reviews for The History and Family Tree of Friedrich Wilhelm Habermann and Johanne Christiane K'Ohler an...

The average rating for The History and Family Tree of Friedrich Wilhelm Habermann and Johanne Christiane K'Ohler an... based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-11-19 00:00:00 John Pirtle There is a new edition of this book. For details see www.turksislandslandfall.com.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-05-08 00:00:00 Nikos Linardakis Decent, if inevitably dated (the most recent edition dates from 1991) look at Egyptian history. The book's prose and structure are often dry as a textbook, but it provides a useful introduction to Egypt's ongoing conflicts between nationalism and Islam, Westernization and tradition which have riven the country since Muhammad Ali's day and, as manifested more recently by the Arab Spring and subsequent unrest in the country. Vatikiotis is sympathetic to the aspirations of Egyptian leaders like Ali, Arabi Pasha and Nasser, viewing their struggles to overcome national divisions against foreign enemies and internal strife. The book's main demerits are a wooden, academic writing style, an obsession with high politics and economic abstractions over the experiences of ordinary Egyptians, a tendency to dismiss opponents of nationalists as fanatics or foreign dupes (true in some cases, but hardly in others - especially when Sadat and Mubarak's closeness to the US and detente with Israel spelled their downfall). Fair introduction but I'll keep an eye out for a better volume.