Rating: 
Summary: fallen behind Europe
Review: This book, which is relevant to every American, describes how Islamic civilization, which was more resplendant than Europe's in the Middle Ages, has since become stagnant, falling behind the West in accumulation of wealth, female equality, separation of church and state, just government, science, and music. It gives a historic perspective and seems unbiased to me, except possibly with his claim that the Islamic World has been receptive to advances in Western military science, and to little else. Before reading this book, I was opposed to war with Iraq. After reading it, and also an article about Iraq in the Nov. 23, 2002 issue of The New Yorker, I am at least receptive to such a war,
because Lewis emphasizes the brutal thugs and dictatorial regimes which are commonplace throughout the Islamic World.
On the other hand, I would like to know a Muslim's response to these accusations.
Rating: 
Summary: Culture in Turmoil
Review: Of course this book does not answer the question of why September 11 happened, since it was written prior to that horrific event. But it does give a concise background of Middle East civilization and culture.Due to my abyssmal understanding of that part of the world, this book was slow reading for me, and I even had to take notes at some points. But I believe that I got a good overview of how the Middle East cultures have dealt with being left behind by Western technology, education, etc. For centuries, Islam had represented the "greatest military power on earth, was the foremost economic power in the world, and had achieved the highest level of arts and science in civilization." Christian Europe had once been considered barbaric and uncultured and then everything changed when it began winning battles and making advances in all areas of commerce and culture. The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the technological revolution all passed unnoticed in Islamic lands. Lewis points out the huge disparity between the Western and Middle Eastern cultures in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. He compares Christianity and Islam, music and other arts, treatment of women, religion vs. secularism, and the economics of the two cultures. Even if this book does not answer ALL questions (and really, what book can?), it was certainly worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Interpretation, However Too Much Speculation
Review: The name Bernard Lewis, Cleveland E. Dodge professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, evokes different responses in different places. In the West he is celebrated as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studies". In the Middle East, he is viewed with a mixture of admiration and skepticism. His new book What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response, much praised in the Western press, attracted some pretty bad reviews from Middle Eastern newspapers. Lewis is accused of trumpeting Western superiority over other civilizations and of "either accidentally or deliberately overlooking or ignoring well-known facts about the Middle Eastern culture". But despite all his flaws and biases it must be acknowledged that Lewis is not one of your run of the mill Orientalist. He has spent decades studying and analyzing the Muslim world and provides unique insights into the Muslim world through the eyes of a Westerner. In What Went Wrong? Lewis attempts to understand what led to the decline of Islamic civilization after a remarkable period of unparalleled dominance. For many centuries, the Islamic world was at the forefront of all human achievement in fields as varied as militarism, economics, arts and sciences. At the same time, Christian Europe was considered a land of the barbarians from which there was nothing to learn or fear. Generally, the book obviously is written by someone who has enouugh background on the matter, and is fairly neutral in his analysis.
Rating:
Summary: So, what did go wrong
Review: This collection of enlightening essays by a great historian was already at the publishing house on 9/11. they changed the title and sold a lot of copies. However, since it was not written to address the question of what went wrong to allow 9/11 to happen, it does not supply satisfying answers. For a start in understanding what did go wrong, I recommend that you google the terms: "Diana Muir" and Islam
or go to URL ... and take a look at the excellent Essay review of Lewis and other writers in the Boox Review (the booxreview.com) entitled
Reading About Islam
Rating:
Summary: Unanswered Questions, But Worthwhile Nonetheless
Review: The title of Bernard Lewis' "What Went Wrong" asks an important question. Too bad he never really answers it. Don't get me wrong. This is a valuable book, in that its essays offer a concise exposition of the Islamic world's reaction to the rise of the West during the last half millennium. The writing is clear and direct. But the essays, really edited lectures delivered between 1995 and 1999, don't hang together very well. There is much repetition between essays, and because of the fragmentary nature of the book it never builds to an analytical conclusion. So Lewis seems to be telling us THAT something went wrong for Islamic civilization, which has not merely failed to keep pace with the West but has declined, in some areas, in absolute terms from its former status. Most Arab states today, for example, are not merely less tolerant than the modern West; they are less tolerant than was Arab civilization three centuries ago. But Lewis never clearly enunciates an analysis of why the Islamic world fared so badly in its encounter with the modern West, nor whether its decline was preventable or inevitable. And because of this failure of analysis, Lewis is unable to present his thoughts about whether Islamic civilization can be put right, and, if so, how. Still, "What Went Wrong" remains an accessible and worthwhile exploration of the encounter between Islamic civilization and the modern West. Lewis ably marshals an almost absurd breadth of primary sources to tell his story, and his ability to illustrate general trends with specific incidents is pitch-perfect. "What Went Wrong?" can be read in a few hours, and while I had hoped for a better book, it is a worthwhile book - especially now that the relationship between the West and the Islamic world has become so problematic.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the only point of view....
Review: Bernard Lewis is a gifted writer and storyteller. His thoughts flow off of the page, making his narrative of Middle Eastern history seem so instantly credible; however, that's exactly the problem. While Lewis is a brilliant writer, his "story" of the Middle East is sadly biased and unrounded. While factually correct in any noticeable regard, his account is sidelined by an extreme orientalist commentary that demeans the Arabs rather than sheading any positive light on the current situation or how we got to this point. His book sadly lacks the thematic continuity of a clear thesis that would be expected from a writer so esteemed for his "scholarship" (a word sadly absent from any accurate review of this book). Lewis may not quite deserve the condemnations placed upon him by writers such as Edward Said; however, Said is right is noting the obviously strong pre-Western slant that echos from Lewis' work. Lewis offers nothing new in this book...only slander on the Arabs. Rather than answering questions or offering solutions, Lewis throws only slander toward the Middle East. An interesting read, but a most disappointing display from someone who is supposed to be an "expert."
Rating:
Summary: Well written, informative
Review: This book could just as easily have been titled 'The Middle East Explained for Dummies'. It explains, through a logical line of reasoning, why the world of Islam is out of step with the modern world, and why an ancient civilization that once led the world in knowledge and discovery, is a vast area of darkness today.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good, doesn't answer question
Review: This book is pretty good. If you enjoy reading history, and are curious about the Middle East, you will probably enjoy reading this book. The book does not clearly answer the question of "What Went Wrong". This is because it is a collection of lectures made by Bernard Lewis, many of which are from a long time ago. The book was not really edited like it should have been. As far as I can tell, the lectures each get their own chapter. Instead of combining the material from different lectures where it would have been logical, and taking out everything irrelevant to answering the question at hand, the various lectures were all just stuck together in a book. The author could have written a very good book about "What Went Wrong", organizing his argument and including all relevant information and issues into this problem. He would probably have needed to actually write something new. Instead, the book just repeats speeches that Lewis already gave. So important matters are overlooked or left out entirely, but other things, while illustrative of some of the problems, take up large amounts of space (like the explanation of how Muslims didn't use clocks). Lewis could probably have written a 20 page essay that would have done a much better job of answering his question, and in all of the space of a book, I'm sure he could have done so and still talked about clocks. This is not to say that what Lewis wrote (or spoke) is not interesting, and it is, in my opinion, accurate. It just doesn't clearly answer the question, and because of its lack of editing, it is needlessly repetitive and poorly organized. I enjoyed this book, but I don't see how so many people could have given it perfect reviews.
Rating:
Summary: One sided Westren View
Review: Bernard Lewis does a hard job of interpreting the decline of Muslim civilization through the lens of history
But he has failed at many places like prejudice and narrow minded western historian.
He is correct when he blames the Muslims for the present mess, and fails totally to see how the westerners in 19th and 20th centuries pushed them in present plight and more clearly how the then British pushed them after first world war and how the Americans exploited, the situation to fight the proxy war with communism fanning the internal disputes and propping the poppet regimes suppressive to the local people and crushing the peoples movement in Muslim land.
The vision of Mr. Lewis is the vision of people who wears all the time green glasses and sees green forgetting the colors. The book is good one sided western view.
Rating:
Summary: The book does not answer its own question
Review: "What Went Wrong?" is a very quick read and contains a few interesting statements, such as its statement that the non-fossil fuel exports of the entire Arab world are approximately equal to those of Finland. The book could be a reasonable history of European-Moslem interactions for the new student of history, although the author presents the Moslem world and Islam itself in the most positive possible light, to the point of inaccuracy. However, the author fails to even attempt to answer his own question as to what went wrong. His comparisons of the Islamic world to its contemporaries betrays his ignorance regarding those contemporaries. Still, there are a few tidbits worth knowing in the book, and it takes no time at all to read. Recommended if you can't think of anything better to do.
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