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James Barr

A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle That Shaped the Middle East Paperback – 26 April 2012

by James Barr (Author)

681 ratings

in History of Lebanon

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In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, two men secretly agreed to divide the Middle East between them. Sir Mark Sykes was a visionary politician; Francois Georges-Picot a diplomat with a grudge. The deal they struck, which was designed to relieve tensions that threatened to engulf the Entente Cordiale, drew a line in the sand from the Mediterranean to the Persian frontier. Territory north of that stark line would go to France; land south of it, to Britain. Against the odds their pact survived the war to form the basis for the post-war division of the region into five new countries Britain and France would rule. The creation of Britain's 'mandates' of Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq, and France's in Lebanon and Syria, made the two powers uneasy neighbours for the following thirty years. Through a stellar cast of politicians, diplomats, spies and soldiers, including T. E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, A Line in the Sand vividly tells the story of the short but crucial era when Britain and France ruled the Middle East. It explains exactly how the old antagonism between these two powers inflamed the more familiar modern rivalry between the Arabs and the Jews, and ultimately led to war between the British and the French in 1941 and between the Arabs and the Jews in 1948. In 1946, after many years of intrigue and espionage, Britain finally succeeded in ousting France from Lebanon and Syria, and hoped that, having done so, it would be able to cling on to Palestine. Using newly declassified papers from the British and French archives, James Barr brings this overlooked clandestine struggle back to life, and reveals, for the first time, the stunning way in which the French finally got their revenge.

Print length

464 pages
Language:

English
Publisher

Simon & Schuster
Publication date

26 April 2012
Dimensions

13 x 3 x 19.81 cm
ISBN-10

9781847394576
ISBN-13

978-1847394576
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Product details

ASIN : 1847394574
Publisher : Simon & Schuster; UK ed. edition (26 April 2012)
Language: : English
Paperback : 464 pages
ISBN-10 : 9781847394576
ISBN-13 : 978-1847394576
Dimensions : 13 x 3 x 19.81 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 7,559 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1 in History of Lebanon
- 2 in History of Syria
- 3 in History of Iran

Customer reviews:
681 ratings

Product description

Review

'With superb research and telling quotations, Barr has skewered the whole shabby story' --The Times

'Lively and entertaining. He has scoured the diplomatic archives of the two powers and has come up with a rich haul that brings his narrative to life' --Financial Times

'James Barr's history of imperial machinations in the Middle East offers a revelatory slant on the continuing crisis in that area... an outstanding piece of research and a damning take on what stoked current Middle Eastern woes' --Metro

'Barr plunges us straight into the mindset of two relatively junior officials, François Georges-Picot and Mark Sykes, in the maelstrom of 1915... And there he keeps us for the next 30 years, not hovering with the historians in high Olympic judgement on the fates of nations, but with the journalists and spies at the very grubby coalface of foreign policy...I found the entire book most horribly addictive, even if the ultimate picture it paints of the actions of the two Western powers is sordid, muddled and hypocritical' --Independent

'Barr describes the complexities of Anglo-French intrigues against each other and - in 1941 - outright war in Syria' --Sunday Times

'Masterful' --The Spectator

'James Barr has succeeded better than any author before him in telling the fascinating story of Anglo-French rivalries in the modern Middle East... Outstanding' --Eugene Rogan, author of 'The Arabs: A History'

'The book resembles a gripping spy thriller...an expertly researched and authoritative book that is easy to read' --Military Times

'Barr is particularly good at identifying and portraying officials and agents engaged in these tit-for-tat reprisals that blurred the distinction between patriotism and crime' --Literary Review

'Engaging and well-researched... James Barr's lively account provides some quite astounding sketches of bluster, bickering and bravado'
--BBC History Magazine

The struggle between Britain and France for mastery of the Middle East between 1914 and the late 1940s, is analysed by James Barr in his excellent new book.
It is a complex story of intrigue and skulduggery, which Barr pieces together in a deft, well-written narrative. A journalist by profession, he manages to bring the whole subject alive through a series of well-chosen details and characters --History Today

About the Author

James Barr has worked for the Daily Telegraph, in politics, and in the City, and has travelled widely in the Middle East. He is the author of Setting the Desert on Fire, a history of T.E. Lawrence and the secret war in Arabia. During the research for A Line in the Sand he was a visiting fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford.

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Customer reviews

5 star		65%
4 star		23%
3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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JaguarJon53

How to create a permanent warzone: Colonialism's shame

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 November 2016

Verified Purchase

My father had the nasty duty of 'policing the Mandate'; a friend of his was killed by Irgun. He held the USA responsible for the support of Zionism. Consequently, he wasn't keen on either.
It turns out, from this amazing account, that he may have been overestimating American involvement.
This must be the definitive version of how we got from Sykes-Picot to British withdrawal from Palestine. It's a very dark and dirty story with very few heroes but a great many villains.
France and Britain vied for dominance in the Middle East with no holds barred. Each subverted the other via clandestine support for uprisings. The British 'succeeded' in causing France to be pushed out of the region only for the French, especially the Free French, to exact a murderous revenge by supporting the Zionists in every way they could.
This book should be compulsory reading for anyone interested and/or involved in the bloody mess of the Middle East today.

30 people found this helpful

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Jologo

A brilliant and accessible history of the Middle East from circa 1915 to 1949

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 June 2019

Verified Purchase

This book is about more than the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916, which sought to divide Britsh and French spheres of influence following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. It is no less than a concise yet adequately comprehensive history of the making of the modern MIddle East, focusing on the 'mandates' awarded to Britain and France (covering present day Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq) by the League of Nations following the conclusion of the First World War. The book provides the ordinary reader with an understanding of the origins of Arab-Israel conflict as well as much of the context for subsequent political developments that have reverberated to the present day. If you ever wondered what inspired the issuance of the Balfour Declaration by the British government in the first place, or why so many Jews in Palestine took up arms against the British in the aftermath of the Second World War, this book provides plausible answers. It also provides many illustrations of unintended consequences that flowed from decisions made on the basis of near-term exigencies and influenced by an escalating rivalry between Britain and France. Well worth reading.

10 people found this helpful

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A MUST READ for good insight to the history of the 20th Century Middle East

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 May 2017

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Whilst I found this book quite heavy to get through I still heartily recommend it as an excellent backdrop to the 20th century disaster that is the Middle East. This book is very well researched and therefor complex as it makes a good job of exploring the labyrinth of plot, alliance, promise, political ambition and personalities of the major players. The subject could well be a 3 year degree course in its own right. I think that it's a good book to have on a history shelf in order to read one or two chapters while reading other books on the same topic. eg Lawrence of Arabia or the Independence of Israel. I think that the huge egos of Britain and France have now been replaced by Russia and the USA and the people who live there continue to be the least relevant consideration in "The Great Game."

19 people found this helpful

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Dr. R. Brandon

A Tale of Deceit and Double Dealing in the Struggle for the Middle East.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 May 2013

Verified Purchase

This book covers the modern history of the Middle East and the creation of the Arab states from the remnants of the Ottoman Empire during the period 1915 to 1949. The particular thrust of this book that makes it quite different from the numerous volumes on this subject is that it specifically deals with the rivalry between Britain and France for supremacy in the area, and contains a great deal of new information on the extraordinary breadth of clandestine and thoroughly devious behaviour adopted by both Great Powers with respect to each other.
The scene is set with the well known Sykes-Picot Agreement of 3 January 1916 that established the arbitrary `line in the sand' of the title and which divided the soon to be created new states of Syria and Iraq (and later Trans-Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon.)
The author, James Barr, then charts the history of the defeat of Turkey and occupation of the Middle East, the Druze Revolt of 1925 and the struggle that France and Britain had in maintaining peace in their respective territories whilst denying the indigenous population self determination in defiance of the American President Woodrow Wilson. The author advances through the endless machinations between France and Britain to the Second World War, the Mandates, the growth of the nascent Jewish state and eventual evacuation of the Colonial Powers. However, this well worn path is highly dramatised by the revelation of the activities of British and French agents and the totally underhand activities of the respective governments, which I would suggest, has not before been handled in such revealing detail. The author introduces to us many interesting buccaneering characters that seem to be attracted to the area as well as many of the local leaders. I found the role of General Charles de Gaulle quite breathtaking in the depth of his arrogance, ingratitude and rudeness towards anything English.
For the most part this book is entirely objective and very well researched, however, I would take issue with the somewhat sanitised description of how the Zionists obtained land from the local Arabs. This book is not just a re-hash of a familiar story, it does contain much new material and a new perspective and should be a good choice for all those with an interest in this area of history. It is astounding that we continue to endlessly meddle in the Middle East to no advantage.

73 people found this helpful

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I. A. Peden

Great book about a forgotten , and hidden, Anglo-French conflict

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 December 2018

Verified Purchase

A book, filled with solid research about the conflict between Britain and France over control of the Arab World.
I was astonished by the revelations of the fighting between the British and the French , when , supposedly , at war with a common enemy in Germany and Turkey. General De Gaulle seems to have spent more time , and energy, fighting Churchill , and the Vichy French in Syria , than the Germans.
The revelation that the leader of the "Stern gang" seriously attempted an alliance with Germany to persuade (terrorise) the British out of Palestine, with the help of the French secret service , displays the prejudice and cynicism at the heart of the Anglo-French conflict in the Arab world.
An excellent book revealing the black visceral contempt between the British and the French in the middle east .

7 people found this helpful

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