The Arab World Handbook

Rating:
Summary: Too much Practicality, not enough Cultural Steepage
Review: This book just didn't do it for me. At least it didn't do what I was looking for it to do. And at the price [I paid] in the bookstore I bought it in, in Saudi Arabia, it ended up being...more than I would have been willing to pay for it.

I was hoping to get some insight into each and every Arabian peninsula country, learn something in-depth about the culture, maybe get a lay of the land, with a couple of in-depth descriptions of the sights, food, and sounds of those countries. Basically what any good travel book should do. With James Peters, "The Arab World Handbook" these things are only scratched at on the surface. It is more of a practical every day life, how to conduct business in the Arab world sort of book, instead of a cultural insight or travel discovery sort of book. It does give you a fair dose of the language and etiquette with a whole chapter devoted to advice for the business traveler. If you are heading to the Middle East to work, I would recommend this book. If you are going there to travel or want to learn extensively about life there, go elsewhere.

The book is probably due for an update as sadly and ironically within the last section for US support organizations Export assistance lists the New York organization at 6 World Trade Center. It's a complicated place, the Middle East; complicated to the Western traveler at least...it will take a more in-depth book than this to allow you to get a good feel for that complication.

Rating:
Summary: Too much Practicality, not enough Cultural Steepage
Review: This book just didn't do it for me. At least it didn't do what I was looking for it to do. And at the price [I paid] in the bookstore I bought it in, in Saudi Arabia, it ended up being...more than I would have been willing to pay for it.

I was hoping to get some insight into each and every Arabian peninsula country, learn something in-depth about the culture, maybe get a lay of the land, with a couple of in-depth descriptions of the sights, food, and sounds of those countries. Basically what any good travel book should do. With James Peters, "The Arab World Handbook" these things are only scratched at on the surface. It is more of a practical every day life, how to conduct business in the Arab world sort of book, instead of a cultural insight or travel discovery sort of book. It does give you a fair dose of the language and etiquette with a whole chapter devoted to advice for the business traveler. If you are heading to the Middle East to work, I would recommend this book. If you are going there to travel or want to learn extensively about life there, go elsewhere.

The book is probably due for an update as sadly and ironically within the last section for US support organizations Export assistance lists the New York organization at 6 World Trade Center. It's a complicated place, the Middle East; complicated to the Western traveler at least...it will take a more in-depth book than this to allow you to get a good feel for that complication.