The Near and Middle East - A. Kevin Reinhart: Before revelation: the boundaries of Muslim moral thought. (SUNY Series in Middle Eastern Studies.) xii, 255 pp. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995. £19.95.

1997 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-128
Author(s):  
W. Madelung
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
State University ◽  
Moral Thought ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies

MICHAEL HERB, All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies, SUNY Series in Middle Eastern Studies (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999). Pp. 381. $75.50 cloth, $25.95 paper.

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
State University ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
The Family ◽  
Traditional Institutions

With this book, Michael Herb makes a significant contribution to the debate on monarchism and its resiliency in the Middle East and North Africa. Relying on archival materials, a small number of interviews, and secondary literature, Herb compares the fortunes of twelve monarchies in the Middle East and North Africa and one monarchy in Afghanistan. By comparing the fate of eight successful monarchies with that of five failed monarchies, Herb seeks to understand which variable best accounts for the success of monarchical rule. A secondary task of the work is to evaluate the future of monarchical institutions in the Middle East and North Africa. Herb asks, “Is revolution—the destruction of these institutions—a necessary step toward political development in the region? Is it possible that political development can occur in the Middle East as it did in some places in Europe, through the adaptation and evolution of traditional institutions, rather than through their destruction?” (p. 256).

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