M. E. McMillan is author of Fathers and Sons: The Rise and Fall of Political Dynasty in the Middle East and the acclaimed The Meaning of Mecca: The Politics of Pilgrimage in Early Islam. She has worked as a translator for the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

This book breaks down the complex web of conflict in today's Middle East and provides historical context, insightful, reader-friendly analysis, and new conclusions about what's really going on

Acknowledgements
Notes on conventions
Introduction Lost in the Labyrinth: What's Really Going on in the Middle East?
PART I: THE TANGLED WEB: WHY THE GREAT POWERS OF EUROPE BECAME INVOLVED IN THE MIDDLE EAST
1. Sarajevo, Sunday, June 28, 1914
2. The British Empire and the Arab World: Ambition, Austerity and A Class Apart
3. The French Empire and the Arab World: From the Crusades to the Civilizing Mission
4. The Russian Empire and the Arab World: Religion, Rome and the New Rome
5. The German Empire and the Arab World: Family Feuds and Eastern Ambitions
6. The Ottoman Empire: How the Arab World Was Won and Lost
PART II: TOO MANY STRAIGHT LINES ON THE MAP: WHERE, WHEN AND WHY IT STARTED TO GO WRONG
7. London, Tuesday, December 21, 1915
8. The Arab World Before the War: The Facts on the Ground
9. The Re-Making of the Middle East: Enter the Nation-State
10. From Sykes-Picot to the Treaty of Sèvres: Betrayals, Backstabbing and Broken Promises
11. The Poisoned Legacy and The War's Unanswered Questions
PART III: ALL OR NOTHING: WHY ALL ROADS LEAD TO JERUSALEM
12. Where to Begin?
13. Jerusalem: The Temple Mount
14. Jerusalem: The Noble Sanctuary
PART IV: KINGS, COLONELS AND COUPS: WHY THERE IS A DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT IN THE ARAB WORLD
15. Cairo, Wednesday, July 23, 1952
16. The Kings, the Colonels and the Political Time Warp: The Return of the Middle Ages
17. I am the State: Power, Politics and the Cult of Personality
18. The Problem of Absolute Power: From Stability to Stagnation
PART V: THE SACRED VERSUS THE SECULAR: WHO SPEAKS FOR ISLAM?
19. Mecca, Tuesday, November 20, 1979
20. 1979: The View from Tehran
21. 1979: Holy War and Unholy Alliances
22. The Arab Spring and the Democratic Alternative
Epilogue Untangling the Web: What Now?
Select Bibliography
Index