Rating: 
Summary: What Went Wrong
Review: I have read 4 or 5 of Lewis's recent books, and this book like his others are scholarly , but not written to the average audience. Let's face it, he can't write a compelling story nor a page turner. Lewis writes facts as a Professor would, not as a talented author of novels the public desires on this topic. Lewis needs to Co-Author books with someone that can write a coherent story line. The audience of Lewis is vast, but he writes to scholars not the average reader. So I am always underwelmed and wonder "What did I just read?
Rating: 
Summary: Why did it go wrong?
Review: Prof. Lewis elegantly and with great insight, explains what went "wrong" with Islam, and how as a culture it failed to deliver many of its adherents to the 21st Century. Though this is exactly what the title of this book promises, he has diligently avoided getting into why things went "wrong". Like many other readers, I mistakenly expected to hear more about the answers to this all-important question, but alas, Lewis has stayed true to his historian form and avoided connecting the dots. His feeble attempt at the very end falls really short and only highlights the gap. The book is a collection of his various lectures and articles published on this topic in recent years, thus lacks the structure and depth of analysis one would have expected. He displays a very intimate knowledge of the history and culture of Middle East, for which he is well known. He was there long before it became a fashionable topic. Lewis was able to unfold what went wrong and when, mostly in comparison to what went right in the West. This is a very useful tool but also distracts from the main theme. More objectionable is the fact that it does not quite represent an apples-to-apples comparison, as West is more than just Christianity. Similarly, Islam means more than just the Muslim religion in this context I believe, it also represents East. Maybe the title should have been "What Went Wrong in the East". Is it possible that if it were not the Muslim Middle East but Hindu or Buddhist Near or Far East that bordered West, Lewis would still feel the need to explain what went wrong with Islam? The way Lewis has framed the whole "problem" in the context of religion alone is quite disappointing and prevents many other, maybe more interesting, venues of discourse. Would Islam have taken a wrong "turn" if there were no West? How does one define "wrong"; a set of moral values or military and economic prowess? If Islam had come before Christianity, would the roles be reversed too? It is for someone else to ponder these questions, which are ultimately more interesting and constructive than what went wrong. His main focus has been in his career as in this book, on the Ottomans. They were one of the few Eastern cultures and societies that attempted to reconcile East and West, maybe unavoidably given their geography. They offer a rich "lab" to study the interaction of East and West, and not just Islam and Christianity to which Lewis limits himself here He paints Islam into a corner, a dead end, solely responsible for most of the ills of Middle East, which willingly or not, helps deepen the divide, far from explaining it. Given his qualifications, one expected more from Prof. Lewis. Still, the superb delivery, the way Lewis is able to connect seemingly unimportant details to a bigger picture, and the amusing and informative anecdotes he has generously provided makes this is a very good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Tells the reader what went wrong
Review: Bernard Lewis, one of the leading experts on the Muslim world has rapidly come under attack for his writings after 9/11. Many reviewers assert that his views have changed from his ground breaking early work and accuse him of morphing into a neoconservative. Readers of his seminal early work, such as the Middle East and the West, will know that this charge is far off base. For decades Lewis, an admirer and expert on Islam, has made the same case for the underlying reasons for the decline of Islamic civilization, despite its ascendant status prior to the 15th Century. As Islamic culture under the Ottoman's became increasingly phobic about innovations, its once leading position in the sciences declined precipitously. Further reasons for scientific decline arose from the power of Islamic clergy and their opposition to foreign ideas while the West was advancing under the enlightenment. Lewis also points out the advantages gained in the West from the growth of competing powerful entities which decentralized control. A rising economic middle class and a rise of a stable capitalist class further advanced economic, scientific, and cultural life. In contrast, Islamic culture remained highly centralized and, in particularly beginning in the 18th Century, showed increasing tendencies towards internal corruption within the bureaucracy. Other reviewers attack Lewis for his focus on Ottoman culture. However, these attackers miss a main point of his argument. The ethnocentric Arabic self identity only began taking hold in the 19th Century and even then it was a tribal rather than ethnic locus. The fall of the Ottoman Empire and the artificial states carved out by colonial Britain and France only further undermined the identity of the Arabs. As for the central question of his title, "What Went Wrong?" Lewis can only offer a brief view of an answer in this short work. However, Westerners need to understand that in the Arab world, across the political spectrum, from Nasser to Bin Laden, this question is asked everyday. How to the preeminent civilization that a few centuries ago stood on the verge of overwhelming Europe and dominating the world find itself in its current humble state? To survive in the modern world, westerners must take this question as seriously as Muslims do and try to find an answer. We are fortunate that Professor Lewis has been asking these questions for years. We can all benefit from the insights he offers.
Rating:
Summary: What Went Wrong
Review: Lewis' book does an excellent job of showing the course that the Muslim world was on scientifically, militarily, economically, etc., shows how they lost their course, and offers several explanations as to why they have been surpassed in these areas by other nations. The specific examples of things like gunpowder and clocks/watches coming through the Muslim world but not being utilized by them shows the break down in innovation and discovery that occurred. Do not read this book if you are wondering why September 11th occurred, I don't believe you will find the answers you seek. In some ways this book is relevant to Sept. 11th because of the disparagement in the Western and Middle Eastern worlds, economically, etc. However, if you are interested in the history of the Muslim world and how they got to be where they are today then this book is a must have.
Rating:
Summary: Overhyped and underwhelming
Review: I bought this book because of the reputation of Bernard Lewis as the preeminent historian on the Middle East. There is no doubting that Lewis knows inside and out the long and muddled history of the Middle East and its peoples. Yet after I finished the book, although I now knew more about the history of the region, I still did not have much in the way of understanding why it has been so violent in the past century. Nor am I closer to understanding why Islamic culture cannot fully adapt to the changing world all around it. I learned a great deal about the glory days of the old Islamic empire, but little about why there have been no equivalent "glory days" in the many centuries since. I know more about the historical underpinings of the Islamic and Arab culture, but still very little about why the culture cannot decide if it wants to be forward-looking or simply dwell on its greatness of centuries past. All in all, although I had high expectations for the book based on reviews and the author's resume, I finished the book feeling a bit underwhelmed by what I had just read through.
Rating: 
Summary: He Did Not Get it Right
Review: Turks are not Arabs even though they are Moslems. In fact Turks and Arabs hate one another. The Ottoman Empire was more the continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire than it was of the Arab
States founded by the followers of Mohammed. The success of the Ottomans was in part at the expense of the Arabs. One needs to consider Arab history from their point of view and that of the Turks from their point of view rather than try to homogenize them. Lewis as a scholar only has part of the puzzle. It is a disgrace to give him any substantial credibility.
Rating:
Summary: Not a very good book.
Review: I am an historian and a professor of history and I just finished reading this book, and I must say that as usual, Mr. Lewis presents a very simplistic and pro-islamic view of the world. Bernard Lewis is a hack for Turkey, has he ever written one critical thing about Turkey or Islam? How can anyone take him seriously as a historian when he has repeatedly attepmted to excuse the horrendous war crimes of the Young Turks and the early Kemalists regarding the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1922. Imagine a historian claiming that American slavery never existed or that the Jewish Holocoaust never occurred, he/she would be ridiculed not given a seat at Princeton. For a much more balanced view of what Islam is capable of may I reccomend The Burning Tigris by Peter Balakian.
Rating:
Summary: Good, if flawed, introduction to culture clash
Review: Lewis obviously knows his subject well-- so well, in fact, that he assumes too much from the reader. The book would have benefitted from a glossary-- as he introduces many terms which he does not adequately explain--, and more examples and details to flesh out his analysis. As informative as it was, the book left me wanting to know more, not necessarily a good thing. I can't really fault him for numerous references that are both obscure and in other languages, but it left me frustrated that the book couldn't lead me to further explore this topic. Still, as an introduction, it is for the most part a clear and concise introduction for those just learning about the historical background that has led to the present-day conflict between the West and Islam.
Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to the history of the Middle East
Review: This is a great way to get to know the history of the middle east. A bit heavy at times but enjoyable nevertheless. Mind you this is one view of one perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Even if you don't agree with all of him he is worth reading!
Review: Even though you may not agree with all of what Bernard Lewis writes - and he tends to have a slightly "essentialist" view of the Middle East - he is well worth reading. He is easy to follow and this particular book is all new material, unlike his Crisis of Islam, which is redone articles. I think that everyone ought to take up the challenge of reading this book, and then form their own conclusions - while I am not with him 100% all of the time, nonetheless he is nothing like the orientalist he is caricatured as being. Read, enjoy, ponder and then decide for yourself! Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)
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