The History of Democracy-From the Middle East to Western Civilizations

The History of Democracy from the Middle East to Western Civilizations is a unique text laying out the broad outline of the History of Democracy. The book is based on the historical works of leading American and foreign historians and is written in a straightforward, readable way summarizing the main themes of history. This permits the reader of the news media to make in depth sense out of the jumble of headlines and articles pouring out of the daily press and television coverage. This book permits the reader to digest broad sections of history in separate coherent bites including an overview of history beginning with Mesopotamia (Ancient Iraq) and Egypt, through Greece, the Roman Empire, Middle Ages, England and Modern Europe to American efforts to impose Democracy on the Modern Middle East. Bite sized chapters of the book include not only a comprehensive overview, but also separate chapters on the Democratic History of America, the Development of Democracy in Russia, Democracy in Muslim Countries and what history has taught us about Democracy. This book becomes available at a particularly opportune time in the course of our national debate over Iraq. President Bush has been struggling to convince the American electorate that our principal goal in the Middle East is to establish a flourishing democracy there since Bush's failure to locate weapons of mass destruction, the original justification for the war. The debate has become shrill, but not all the participants in the debate, including foreign dictators, agree as to what democracy means, particularly in the Middle East which has been ruled for centuries by tribal leaders. This book has been carefully researched and documented and can serve not only as a source for thoughtful readers following the national debate over democracy, but also for those seeking to increase their general knowledge.