Rating: 
Summary: A partial answer to an important question
Review: This book would have benefited from a more aggressive rewrite. It does not flow smoothly due to the anthologized structure from prior writings. The reader is left to reach too many conclusions on his own. There is a rich supply of specific examples of both good and bad aspects of pre-20th century Islam civilization. Reliance on the strict moral and civil code of the Koran is demonstrated to have inhibited assimilation with and adoption of the best of Western technologic and social development. Lewis contrasts that attitude with that of the Far East where Western-inspired economic growth has propelled them past the Middle East in a single generation. This is an important book by a man of great knowledge and experience. I think it could have been much better.
Rating: 
Summary: B.Lewis is the best historical analyzer.The book is perfect.
Review: I personally like the style of Bernard Lewis alot. I have listened to his TV Interviews. He delivers his point cyrstal clear. He is the best Historian in our lifetime, and the reason for that is his objectivity. He loves every nation and every culture, at least this is the feeling I get from his books and speeches.
I personally found "The Assassins: A Radical Sect In Islam" harder to read than "What Went Wrong". This book is really very easy to read, and it is still very artistic to my belief. I enjoyed it, but it lasted so short.
Rating: 
Summary: This book does not live up to the promise of its title
Review: This is an extremely disappointing read in every respect. It lacks insight, relevance, and profundity. You won't need the book's Afterword to tell you this is simply a sloppy, admixtured rehash of three twenty-year-old speeches attached to a post-September 11 Preface; you will have figured it out on your own after reading, for the third time in the same volume, about the output of a certain Turkish printing press, the importance of hats in Islamic society, or the place of European miniatures in Islamic art. If I learned anything from this book, it was quickly forgotten (probably buried under all the resentment at having been duped by the title). For true relevance and actual insight, try "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order" by Samuel P. Huntington.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant but (importantly) misses the mark
Review: this is an elegant, enjoyable, really interesting (but seriously flawed) account, not only of what some westerners think went wrong with Islam, but more importantly what is wrong with western understanding (or misunderstanding)of modern middle eastern islamic culture. The treatment is entertaining, readable, well documented, and everything one would expect from the distinguished historian Lewis is.... and I dont pretend to be an expert, but must say Im quite disappointed by it... he's brilliant, classically sophisticated, and scholarly impeccable, but his analysis seems too exclusively elitist western....he leans predominantly on western diplomatic and academic/literary observers for a very scattered historical picture of Islamic culture, and what is missing here are strong contemporary voices from the region against which to calibrate his observations... after all what's the use of history if it doesnt relate usefully to the present....this book is not about the ordinary people of the region, its more about the essentially priviliged...there is none of the heated vivacity or humor of the souk, or the warmth and family joy of the Islamic parents and children I know....and I see nothing of what enchanted me in my forays into those countries (or Asian Islam for that matter)....the resilience, the social conscience, the cool, delicate existentialism of the Sufi poets...etc... Hafiz is not even included in the index.............even the steady emancipation of educated women... the Amman conference on education for all in 1996 documented the strides in this direction taken in the region....and female enrollment in universities in exemplary cases exceeds that of males today.... and I find his musical explorations very weak and elitist (all theater and orchestras)... he doesnt seem to value the real vibrant contributions of ordinary folk to musical inheritance (no mention of jazz in America for example...) and as for modern Islam he seems to want to dismiss an entire culture to the shame of `limping along behind'... rather insulting, and not a very useful or constructive judgement in my view.... and every bit as much a search for comfort in explaining away reasons for a most serious global conflict as the very behavior for which he seeks to indict Islam.... I would appreciate reading thoughtful reactions of middle eastern/maghrebi muslims to this book preferably translated from local languages......
Rating: 
Summary: So What Went Wrong?
Review: I must agree with Doug and others here, Lewis does not answer the self-imposed question he leads us to believe he will answer by the very title of his book. He spends an inordinate amount of time reviewing the social, economic, artistic, and governmental differences of the Ottoman period but says next to nothing about the early Islamic empire. I was very surprised he did not mention, but for one line, the great Sunni/Sh'ia schism which is fundamental to any Islamic study. Instead Lewis asks a great many questions but gives no answers. His final paragraphs are laden with there-is-always-hope reasoning but that really does not do for what purports to be a scholarly work. All in all, quite disappointing though an interesting read for the uninitiated. Just don't expect Lewis to give you the answers he claims to promise.
Rating:
Summary: OK historical account but short on answers
Review: Bernard Lewis is regarded as a leading figure in Middle Eastern studies, and his scholarly credentials are impeccable. That means that he has a fascination with that part of the world and has many colleagues and friends from that part of the world. So what? That means that he cannot be overly critical(as I believe he should) of the culture of the Middle East as it might rub his friends and colleagues the wrong way.He analyzes the history Western penetration in certain areas, those being military, commercial, social, and cultural. For curious readers, much of the information will prove interesting, as most people are completely ignorant of Middle Eastern history and culture. In that respect, this book is good. However, his description of Islamic civilization being tolerant and the envy of the world may to a certain extent have been true, but there are several caveats that he failed to mention. 1. The life for the typical Muslim was the same as it was for the medieval peasant, i.e. a miserable life of exploitation.
2. Location, baby! The Islamic civilization had the ideal location of being between Europe and the far Eastern civlizations. Being a strong military power allowed them to collect tribute from the merchants passing through their area. When Europeans were able to circumnavigate Africa and "discovered" the Americas, they got cut out of deal.
3. Islamic society was a military society, meaning that a small elite possessing arms were able to exploit the non-armed, productive majority. The fact that they 'tolerated' non-Muslims just meant that the ruling class would gladly exact tribute from non-Muslims as well as Muslims. Non-Muslims would still be put to death for attempting to proselyte a Muslim from his religion.
4. There are not many democratic overtones from the Koran nor from the Middle Eastern civilizations. At the grass roots level, Islamic culture is very individual, meaning that Muslims have practically no history of cooperative society. A Middle Eastern bazaar is the perfect example, a collection of hagglers trying to rip each other off. If you are looking for answers to the 'Islamic problem' because of 9/11, you probably won't find it here. If you are looking for a good overview of the decline of Islamic civilization's power in a geopolitical sense, and the resulting effect upon its society, you will probably be happy with the book.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing but Incomplete
Review: I bought this book hoping to gain a little perspective on the history of bad blood between the Arab world and the West, in order to quell any possible doubts about the obvious givens - that the Arab world is vastly inferior and Islam has not been kind to it in modern times. While the book offers some very interesting examples from the author's scholarship, they are scattered in the midst of fragmented ideas. The book is brief, and seems more like a stapled collection of historical sketches (taken from lecture notes) than a completely coherent analysis of a complex phenomenon. The summary at the end comes like a payoff, but it does not come at a logical time, cutting off the flow of the argument. Furthermore, it seems like many of these ideas are rehashed, lacking the enthusiastic voice of original scholarship. However, I will give it the benefit of the doubt for being well-intentioned and holding the right opinions.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Description of the issue, but not many answers
Review: Bernard Lewis gives a good description of the problems that beset the Arab world after the middle ages and how the Arabs world fell behind the west in its development. Lewis describes the changes within the Arab world by giving both fact and anecdote, and his work covers the sphere of the military, technology, the world of politics, the role of women, and the structure of the church. This is an excellent short work for getting "up to speed" quickly on the Arab world after the events of September 11, 2001, and Lewis provides his arguments clearly and without any undue bias. He is not an apologist for the Arab world, nor is he scornful of it. He simply tells it like it is. This is a good introduction for readers who want to delve deeper into Lewis's other works on the Arab world. Excellent reading.
Rating:
Summary: Informative, controversial, but historical work
Review: Bernard Lewis's work focuses on the growing realization during the latter days of the Ottoman Empire that the Muslim world was being eclipsed by the West. This leads to the question of what went wrong? From discussions on major differences between the West and Islam in terms of the role of women and even the use of clocks, the subtext is that something is deeply wrong with Islamic civilization and how have turkish and arab intellectuals responded to this challenge. Another interesting subtext not addressed is how Islam's response to the West (often a search for scapegoats) differs from those of other civilizations who were colonized, gained independence and progressed (Latin America's political development and East Asia's growth and democratization,for example). It is a quick read. The book goes out of its way to be fair and balanced, though is destined to be controversial - it focuses on the Ottomans, on elites and others may find great counterpoints. Following this book was a recent UN report by Arab intellectuals on the political, economic and social development of the Middle East that notes the region is losing ground is almost every respect not only to the West, but the rest of the developing world. Having said that, readers will get the following depending on their perspective. (1) Average Readers - a very historical and academic discussion of Islamic culture and how is has failed to progress as the West has. (2) Arab Studies specialists and practioners of Islam - very familiar ground, some controversy, an opportunity for introspection and some thoughtful discussion on issues that have become increasing topical among arab intellectuals of late.(Fans of Said's Orientalism will be offended, but forced into painful reassessment of that great books critiques.) I hope this is translated rapidly into Arabic, Turkish and Farsi, but somehow suspect it won't be. Be assured this debate is ongoing and this is merely a more historical approach to the current discussion. (3) Western critics of Islam and television commentators - more fodder for their views, lots of anecdotes to bolster their arguments, great subtleties of Lewis's arguments that will be lost on such people. The book shows stark differences between Islamic attitudes and Western ones - it is very difficult not to make value judgments. Given a generally anti-progressive, anti-women, anti-liberal tone to the muslim attitudes of that day, it could be difficult for western readers not to think worse of Islam. But this is talking about a previous century and obscures so much change that is ongoing and a great debate that is stirring in most arab countries. (Personally I was saddened to feel that much of this discussion was as applicable today and didn't seem dated. A discussion of victorian sensibilities, let alone enlightenment thinking seems lightyears away from current Western thought.)
Rating:
Summary: Questions, questions, questions
Review: Bernard Lewis addresses the big question of "What Went Wrong" in the Muslim world with a great deal of knowledge but very little depth. Time and again he raises important issues and then moves quickly on to other important issues that he also only addresses lightly. This is a string of lectures and popular articles with little depth. The greatest weakness of the book was that Lewis might know the history of the Muslim world but he doesn't seem to have much background on other regions and cultures. His discussion on the concept of time demonstrates this since he seems to have no knowledge of the enormous efforts that went into teaching time to the european and japanese peasants when they became factory workers. In a discussion with a friend about the book, I summed up Lewis' question and a partial answer: "what do you do if your told that the silver bullet for your problem is that you have to destroy your identity?" Her answer:
You wander long on the trail of nostalgia, you avoid, accommodate, compete, and compromise until you can't any longer and then you're in crisis.
Billions of identities in crisis. Billions deconstructing the "Self" and writing poems of existential angst and growing ever more mystical rather than literal. Billions clinging to the "Self" and writing plans of existential annihilation and growing ever more totalitarian rather than tolerant.
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