The Hidden Hand : Middle East Fears of Conspiracy
Editorial Reviews
Commentary Magazine, February 1997, Joseph Shattan
The Hidden Hand is a remarkable work of scholarship. Daniel Pipes, the editor of the Middle East Quarterly and a specialist on Arab affairs, has pulled together an enormous body of writing from a broad array of sources--journals, memoirs, speeches, and sermons--to illuminate a salient aspect of Middle Eastern political reality: the pervasive belief in Muslim and Arab society that conspiracies and secret dealings--a "hidden hand"--lie behind much of what happens in the world, and that these explain the relative superiority of Israel and the West.
The Hidden Hand contains a rich inventory of similarly wild conspiracies that never were. But it is far more than a compendium of paranoid ideas. It raises, and proceeds to answer, a number of crucial questions. Why are the countries of the Arab world and Iran so prone to this style of thinking? Why do most of the conspiracies in circulation seem to center on the allegedly nefarious doings of Zionists and imperialists? And, finally, do the political leaders who spin such tales of intrigue actually believe in their own spurious words?
As Pipes puts it, "conspiracy theories obstruct modernization itself," and prevent the inhabitants of the Muslim world "from achieving the advancement they crave." In this enlightening study, Pipes shows just how deeply the problem lies, and how thorough-going a mental revolution will be required to address it.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
MELA Notes
An essential addition...special focus on conspiracy theory as it influences the political thinking of an important region in the world.
The Hidden Hand : Middle East Fears of Conspiracy
The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy,Daniel Pipes,Palgrave Macmillan,0312176880,Conspiracies,International,International Relations,International Relations - General,Middle East,Middle East - General,Political,Political Science,Politics - Current Events,Politics / Current Events,Politics and government,Politics/International Relations,Asian / Middle Eastern history: postwar, from c 1945 -,Espionage & secret services,Fiction / General
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