A History of Modern Yemen

An accessible and fast moving account of twentieth-century Yemeni history.

Paul Dresch (Author)

9780521794824, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 December 2000

304 pages, 23 b/w illus. 12 maps
23.3 x 15.6 x 1.6 cm, 0.5 kg

'If you have time to read a single book on Yemen's recent past, Paul Dresch's A History of Modern Yemen is the one for you.' American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences

To the outside world, Yemen is famous for its beautiful landscapes and architecture. However, as Paul Dresch demonstrates, Yemen's modern history is unique and deserves to be better understood. While the borders of most Middle East states were defined by colonial powers after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, a single Yemeni state was not formed until 1990. In fact, much of Yemen's twentieth-century history was taken up constructing such a state, forged after years of civil war between the North and the South. The story is a complex one, but the author handles it masterfully, employing his skills as an anthropologist to re-enact the experiences of those involved through personal encounters and a first-hand knowledge of the region. The narrative is fast-moving and interactive, introducing the non-expert painlessly and pleasurably to a little-known slice of Arab history. Conversely, the expert will find much that is new on every page.

1. Turkey, Britain, and Imam Yahya: the years around 1900
2. Yahya and the British: 1918–1948
3. A new form of politics: the 1950s
4. Revolutions and civil wars: the 1960s
5. Two Yemeni states in the 1970s
6. Yemen in a wider world: politics and economics through the 1980s
7. United Yemen.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Asian history [HBJF]