Rating: 
Summary: A quick read with a lot of interesting points.
Review: From the book I got that:- Islamic culture reached its peak of power around 1453. Since then it's been on a downward slide.
- The Turks, being the major Islamic power, were the ones to take the brunt of the impact with the West.
- The Turks have asked themselves what they can do to compete with the West.
- The Turks want at least to "Modernize", if not to "Westernize", and have taken steps in that direction.
- Part of this modernization is a separation of temporal and spiritual authority.
- The rest of Islam has missed out. Rather, the rest of Islam wants Western greatness, but without what makes the West great. It wants the attributes without the attitude. The end result is that you've got about 700 million people seething with jealous rage, wanting to bring the infidel low. This rage, originally directed at Great Britain and France, is now directed at the United States. This is a huge problem for the U.S., as recent events have shown. The solution? Well, how do you change the mentality of 700 million people? Iran and Turkey emerge in the book as the major influencers of the Islamic world. Turkey is pretty pretty secular, and has applied for membership in the EU. Iran has been a major exporter of Islamic terror, but it looks like the Islamic revolution in Iran is on the skids and is only kept in place by armed, imported thugs. If Iran should go secular, like Turkey, the Islamic world might finally begin to modernize. I'm not holding my breath, however.
Rating: 
Summary: Misguided
Review: It is sad that a well-known writer like Lewis continues to propagate his personal opinions and biases, instead of giving a balanced and scholarly account. In additioned to presenting biased views, the book also contains multiple factual errors or "unintentional" omissions.
Rating:
Summary: Do Yourself a Favor. . .
Review: . . .and read this book. A slender volume, but dense in history, ideas, and analysis. Lewis shatters many popular myths about why Islam fell behind, and provides an almost lyrical history of Islam's "discovery" of the West. You might find yourself re-reading entire paragraphs -- both to make sure you understood the point, but also just to enjoy some very good prose. History doesn't get much better.
Rating:
Summary: Small In Size But Profoundly Insightful And Informative
Review: I bought this book after the horrific events of September 11 caused me to wonder how any faith, no matter how militant, could justify the murder of innocents. I am a retired lawyer and, when I had the time, pursued the study of history as a hobby. I do that a lot now. I understand this country's strengths and weaknesses, and found it beyond belief that we could be hated with such intensity, and that any religion or political philosophy could endorse such obscene behavior. Professor Lewis answers this question with his recognized expert understanding of a failed civilization. While Europe foundered into the dark ages following the fall of Rome, education, much of it from the far east, flourished in the Muslim world. But Western Civilization, largely as a result of the religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, secularized government. The Muslim world has not done so to this very day, nor has it pursued scientific inquiry, music or literature, as was the case in the West. Lewis points out that other than seeking to learn about the West's military techniques after suffering a chain of defeats, science,technology, music and the arts were not important to a people who centered their lives on a medieval, militant religion. One of the first collisions between Islamic thought and that of the West arose from the latter's elimination of the slave trade. Slavery, to Islamic ways, was approved by Allah, and thus was not an evil practice.It was a troubling collision of ideas to the East, which has not been fully resolved to date. Lewis helps us to understand that this same antiquated thinking collides with Western enlightenment with respect to the status of women. It is in the area of personal rights and status that brings this failed belief system into profound conflict with Westernism. This is a powerful little book. Nomatter how much one may enjoy certain cultural aspects of the Middle East, the tension and hostility will not be eliminated easily. When one combines the frustration of a failed civilization seeking to return to a glory that has not existed for centuries, a religion that is based on and immured in medieval philosophy, and a substantial number of people who believe that any action against the "infidel" (that's us, folks), no matter how horrific, is morally good, there results a recipe for disaster. Thinking Americans should read and re-read this book. Understanding promotes good decision making, and as our nation moves further into its war on terrorism, our society has a real need for thinking Americans, both as decision makers, and as voters who elect them.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Informative
Review: The other reviews of this book are very accurate. Mr Lewis provides a very readable and concise modern history of the Middle East and the Arab culture. This is a short work, but it does manage to explain how and why Islam and the people of the Middle East have historically reacted to major events in a way that is so incomprehensible to most Westerners. If you, just like myself, have never really paid attention to the history of the Middle East and are increasingly confused by the modern day actions of it's people, I would highly recommend this book. Though this text certainly does not excuse certain actions, ie. the modern day Islamic suicide bomber, it does at least portray them using history as a backdrop so we might understand why the actions were taken and why they believe they only have one course of action available. PJZ
Rating:
Summary: A good, informative read. Definitely not an easy read.
Review: Firstly, Bernard Lewis must have deliberately made this book difficult to read. That said, it was absolutely worth the effort. Though not a book on terrorism, the topics covered really illumniated the "why's" of our current problems with the islamic world. For example: growing up in the US, it hadn't ever occurred to me that the complete lack of separation between church and state could be so disasterous. (And there's plenty more stuff like this.) I'd suggest buying the C-Span Booknotes interview with Bernard Lewis from Audible.com and then reading the book.
Rating:
Summary: consequences mounting..
Review: Middle eastern and related culture and its roots are well explained by the author in terms of our worldview.We are sometimes not aware of it, but it is rooted in democracy influenced by Christianity. We can see continuity of the orientation of the leadership acted out in world politics. The understanding and mutual respect of the Western and Islamic cultures is desirable and that is the author's contribution to the mounting tensions. But it is a question nobody is optimistic about. Besides the information of this book we can judge the motives: envy, determination of the mullahs to stay in control of the ideas, no desire of the West to change.
Rating:
Summary: It's reason versus revelation
Review: The whole book is a study on the progressive deterioration of a whole civilization. The few visionaries who realized what was happening and how to correct the stagnation. Among them Kamal Attaturk, founder of modern Turkey features prominently.
The end message to me is that because Christianity is considered a religion, in an area where religious abuses had been common, the first thing that happened, when the humanistic revolutions occurred ( The renaissance first,and the French revolution second)was that religion a.k.a church and state separated.
Islam on the other hand is more expansive than Christianity, and its domain extends beyond religious observance, and into civil law and governance; the Sharia. There is no real distinction in Islam between the religious and the civil spheres. A moslem traveler, visiting England wonders at a people who, not having a god given body of law, have to make their own laws, and elect Parliament to do so.
Western civilization and law, based generally on reason, is compared to Islamic civilization and law, based primarily on revelation the Quran.
All in all a very instructive book that ilustrates the differences between the outlook of both Civilizations.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good Information but......
Review: I really enjoyed reading about the history of the Middle East, the Islamic influence in the region and its propagation, as well as Mr. Lewis' view of how Islam ultilmatly took Middle Easterners down a path that lagged them behind the rest of the world. The problem is, it's tough to stay interested in a book when it presents a question and answers it in the first couple of chapters. Additionally, as I learned upon conclusion of the book, this book is simply a compilation of Mr. Lewis' speaking engagements on this subject. The editor should have done a better job with organization it would keep the readers' interest higher.
Rating: 
Summary: Short, simple, and that's part of the problem
Review: I'd be careful of any book written by an outsider, regardless of their credentials, that's titled "What went wrong." On what terms did things "go wrong?" Who is the judge? Most people can agree that there have been some rough spots in the history that Lewis describes, but to say that all of this is a failed Middle Eastern response to growing Western influence isn't really on the mark. Lewis focuses on the power politics of an elite few. The "Middle East" in Lewis's book sounds too much like that ambiguous "they" we're talking about when we marginalize people from other cultures. And so this text reminds me too much of the sort of ideological marginalization that is at the root of the struggle between East and West in the first place. How does this East/West struggle affect the average person on the street, for example? What "went wrong" there and why? Lewis's book is a little too short and too simple. And I worry most of all that the themes in this short book can too easily serve the simple-minded Us versus Them mentality that nurtures dangerous jingoistic opinions.
| 
