I always hear that history has had a distorted western influence.
I want to be able to get my hands on a good summary of history that modern historians agree is a good balance between what we know from all cultures.
I specifically want to know middle east history but am also looking for guidance on history as a whole. Can anybody recommend any books or readings that could help me on this journey?
Thanks in advance.
Will chuck up the obvious recommendation for the book that criticises the dominance of Western images of the Middle East, Edward Said's 'Orientalism'. He tries to show the ways in which Western images of the East (specifically the Middle East - Said was born in Palestine) has been manipulated to serve Western interests and provide an 'other' to justify imperialism rather than genuine scholarship.
The book is fairly controversial still and I'd swallow it with a large dose of salt but its influence is fairly undeniable.
For something I personally found to be a useful corrective to a perspective that takes current American and Western European dominance as something inevitable, John Darwin's 'After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire'. He strikes a nice balance between the more strident criticisms of post-colonialist historians and blindly seeing Europe as the inevitable heart of global society.
Eugene Rogan's "The Arabs" sounds like it might be what you're looking for.