The Syrian civil war that began in 2011 has driven millions from their homes and killed hundreds of thousands, with destabilizing effects for the region and world powers. In Syria: A History of the Last Hundred Years, author, Arabist and international lawyer John McHugo (A Concise History of the Arabs) provides an energetic and lucid crash course on this complex nation.
McHugo summarizes the earlier history of diverse and geographically vulnerable Greater Syria, before zeroing in on modern Syria, created by foreign powers after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1920. After the arbitrary designation of borders, which divided extended families, ethnic and religious groupings and trade routes, and after 20 years of self-interested French misrule, it seems there was never much hope for a unified, prosperous and free nation. McHugo describes the rise of intertwined nationalist and Islamic sentiment under the French, as well as the extreme fragility and churning military governments of independent Syria through the 1960s. He also traces the devolution of Ba'athism from a movement dedicated to social justice and unity into the brutal and corrupt dictatorships of the Assads. In his final chapter, he analyzes the civil war in light of all that has come before, and considers various options for the future.
This is a remarkably fair-minded telling, with careful examinations of every player's strengths and weaknesses, their positive and negative actions. Those who crave more depth after the final page can turn to McHugo's extensive bibliography. --Sara Catterall