January 2004.  What Went Wrong?  The Clash between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East, by Bernard Lewis. The author is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Emeritus at Princton University.  This link is to his academic profile on the Princeton University website. What went Wrong?... examines the history of the Western Christian world with Islam over the last 400 years  The Perennial edition of the book has an afterword written by Lewis in 2003 which helps put the 9/11 attacks into the perspective of that 400 year history.  Another good book about the the Middle East that focusses on World War 1 and its aftermath is A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin.  As Lewis points out in another of his books (The Crisis iof Islam), the post WW1 era is critical to understanding the Middle East today. Back to reading list