Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Unfortunately, only the last 10 pages of this book actually try to answer the question, "What went wrong?" The first 150 pages is a scattered history of Western influence in the Middle East, which jumps around between the 15th and 18th centuries, and doesn't deal at all with the last century, until the last chapter. This book will inform you on Middle Eastern culture, but spends more time talking about subjects such as Western influence on Middle Eastern architecture than on what has gone wrong. If you are an average person like me who is hoping to learn more about why the Arab world is the way it is today in order to better understand the current problems in that region, this book will not do much for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Short, Informative & Highly Readable Scholarship
Review: This short and extremely readable book attempts to provide the answer as to why a culture and civilization such as the Muslim world so obviously pre-eminent in the 14th century has come to fall in its current state, and by that I refer to, in Bernard Lewis's own words, "all standards that matter in the modern world - economic development and job creation, literacy and education and scientific achievement, political freedom and respect for human rights." Bernard Lewis is blunt in one portion of his answer by stating that while it is "usually easier and always more satisfying to blame other's for one's misfortunes" such thinking will not prove profitable here, and ends by proposing that the Middle East would profit more by asking "How do we put it right?" rather than "Who did this to us?". Ultimately though, Bernard Lewis refuses from clearly or directly pointing out what he believes to be the culprit in the matter and only alludes to a change, or radicalization, of Islam as the answer. He simply offers us that the question "What has Islam done to the Muslims?" should not be asked, but rather that by asking "What have the Muslims done to Islam" may provide a possible answer; however, and unfortunately, he goes no further in this direction. No doubt that the author's not finding the answer in the form of a 13th century Mongol invasion or, more currently, in Western colonialism will upset those seeking such an answer. Yet, even if this central position is not to your liking there are still other gems within this small book - such as reasons as to why the concept of the separation of church and state developed in the Western rather than in the Middle East- that make the book very much a worthwhile read. However, for those seeking a much more "in-depth" exploration of the topic, I believe they would be better suited to tackle Mr. Bernard Lewis's "Muslim Discovery of Europe".
Rating: 
Summary: very fine, but not enough
Review: This book felt like a stingy little glass of cool water on a hot summer day. Such a slim volume on such a vast subject!
What sets out as a Shahrazad-like, fascinating and entertaining narration of battlefield confrontations between East and West and adheres to the same mellifluous style to describe the futile, ineffective attempts of the East to incorporate into their systems the desperately needed strange fruits of western weaponry and military organization (and later of other things as well), culminates in chapter 5 in an unexpectedly and challengingly terse and dense comparison between western and eastern polity, to dissipate thereafter into a rather superficial and loose parataxis of self-evident differences, for example the pervading presence of timepieces and timetables in the West versus the lack thereof in the East, without delving systematically into the antecedents of the phenomena described.
The strong points of the book are: the intellectual rigor, a sine qua non of historiography, of which Professor Bernard Lewis seems to have more than his share; a sensibility to the origin and semantics of words (as used in the East), which is also manifest in the lucid handling of the English language in the book itself; the inclusion of anecdotes (which will make you laugh!); the use of an "Economist"-like subtle irony; and finally the substantial body of notes, which let this volume appear like a sliver of ice floating on a sea of untapped information.
Although the quantity of the material offered in this book made me rather stingy in my evaluation (only 3 stars), the quality of the material will definitely make me read other books by Professor Bernard Lewis.
By the way: very much as September 11th and a timely publication made this book a New York Times Bestseller, "A History of Civilizations" by Fernand Braudel became a bestseller in Greece at about the same time and for the same reasons.
Rating:
Summary: More of a long editorial than a real book
Review: If you are looking directly for the answer to the title question, you will need to skip to the conclusion at the end for what is basically a decent narrative. The author comes to the same conclusions that I have read in more than a dozen articles and editorials. Which is, with the dominence of church-run states using it's resources to keep down women and dissenters, and the reliance on one industry, the countries of the Middle East have dug themselves into a hole. Faced with teeming poverty in their countries due to gross-mismanagement, the rulers blame outside influences like the United States and Jews as the cause of their problems, where they have only themselves to blame. The fact that I agree with these statements doesn't make this a great work. It does clearly explain all of the above in it's conclusion, but it is nothing original. Faced with trying to get it published as a book, they slapped on a VERY brief history of the Middle East to fill in some pages. This, too, can be found in many other sources. I liked it as reinforcement of things I pretty much already knew and believed, but there aren't that many readers uninformed enough that this would be a learning experience. The author should have tried harder.
Rating:
Summary: A Conundrum
Review: Unfolded in this book is an explanation for why we have a problem with the radical Muslins. They believe they are the recipients of the perfect revelation from God (in the Koran). They can see how wealthy the Western world is, and our wealth, combined with our being infidels (for the most part), makes our opulence difficult to explain. A powerful economy needs freedom, so it can self-sort itself into an efficient arrangement. Islamic governments cannot abide freedom (if the rule of Allah is to be maintained), so they cannot really compete. And we cannot fix the problem. The author has presented a well reasoned and yet troubling premise. Those who make policy should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: So , what went wrong..
Review: As a middle eastern I'd say that Bernard Lewis was not off in his depiction of the culture of the middle east. But what I take away from this book having read it once , is the fall of the ottoman empire is due in part to the lack of watches and clocks. I am being silly , but really a whole chapter dedicated to the measurement of time and space , yet no analysis, no in-depth deconstruction of the culture that might lead you to answer the question: "What went wrong".
Don't be fooled by the title. I read the whole book at Chapters and I am glad I didn't buy it. This is one book , I won't have to read a second time.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating look at Islam
Review: This interesting book is really two books in one. The first part of this book is a fascinating history of the interaction between the Ottoman Empire and the Christian West. The author begins in the sixteenth century, when the Ottoman Empire appeared to be the height of power and culture, while Christian Europe appeared to be comparatively weak and barbarous. However, as the dialogue continues the reader sees the Empire pass into first relative and then absolute decline, as the West gained more and more power. The steps taken by the Ottomans to stem their decline are shown, as is the reason why they were ineffective. This dialogue is quite interesting, and explains a great deal about how the Muslim world evolved. Starting in the sixth chapter, the author changes to an examination of Islam, and its fundamental differences with Christianity. In particular, I found the author's analysis of the polyphonic nature of Western music and syncretic nature of Western civilization to be quite intriguing. The final chapter brings the narrative around to the subject of the title, What Went Wrong? Why is it that Islam was so inventive and civilized at it's beginning, and yet moved so far away from such things? No definite answer is given. This book is a fascinating look at Islam, one that I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in understanding the evolution of Islam, and how the Muslim world go to where it is today.
Rating:
Summary: A tale of no progress
Review: For those relatively unfamiliar with the Islamic world and it's history, this is an good introduction. It gives an idea of what Islam did and did not accomplish, and has a nice list of references that point the way to more detailed sources. But there is one very strange thing about this book. In the last chapter, Lewis asks why Islam lost the economic and political power race to the West, and confesses he isn't sure why. Yet his own previous chapters provide the start of the answer. At some point in Muslim history, the culture decided to stop changing. Research into the new became a crime. This was a deliberate, conscious choice. Lewis points this out in several places. Surely it is obvious that if one participant in a race decides to stand still, while the other keeps moving forward, the second will eventually pass the first? The question "Why did Islamic civilization decide to stop learning new things?" is one I can't even begin to answer. But this book makes it obvious that Islam did make that decision. Until the Muslim world reverses it, the disparity between them and the West can only grow.
Rating:
Summary: A Search for the Truth About the Middle East
Review: This is a very readable book coming from a highly regarded Middle Eastern Scholar. The book enabled me to understand how the Middle Eastern mind thinks. Most of the reasons for "What Went Wrong?" are traced through the Ottoman empire over the last 500 years. I would have preferred that the author included an examination of Middle Eastern culture prior to the writing of the Quran (Koran). A lot of insight into this fascinating culture seems to be missing from the book. After I read the author's book "A Brief History of the Middle East over the past 2000 Years", I may have this void filled.
Rating:
Summary: interesting generalizations from ottoman history
Review: Bernard Lewis' lectures make very interesting,
if occasionally abrupt, reading. He is at his most detailed
when concerned with the Ottoman empire after
1400 CE. His general remarks on how
the past has affected muslim countries in
the 20th century are thought-provoking,
he mentions few specifics.
The book is a thoughtful, broad survey of the rise
and fall of socioeconomic Islam, with nuggets
from the Ottoman empire in decline. Some of
his remarks echo Amin Maalouf's very interesting
afterword to _The Crusades from the Arab Point of View_,
which is a nice complement to this book,
as Maalouf is rich on detail for places and times
which Lewis passes over quickly.
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