I know that the Middle East is typically rife with conflict. But how and why did it get there?
What is one book you would recommend to a novice on Middle Eastern history? One that is detailed, yet concise and easy to read. One that doesn't focus on personal accounts, but on a general overview. And most importantly, one that is written from a more "Arab" perspective. I am not interested in reading about how magnificent Israel is, or how the US was just trying to save the day. I want to know how the Arabs themselves have been affected.
The main topic I'm interested in is how American foreign policy has affected the Middle East (especially in Afghanistan while it was trying to fight off the Soviets, as well as Iran and Libya) so if there's a book that does a good job of explaining the role of the US and its effects on the Middle East, please recommend it.
Other topics I'm interested in are the Ottoman Empire and British rule, the Armenian genocide, Syria (who is Assad? what has he done? and why is there a civil war there?), Kurdistan and Iran (I heard Iran was fairly progressive before US foreign policy), and American foreign policy in Libya (I have no idea what went on there either).
For an overview of the Middle East from the Arab perspective I would recommend Orientalism by Edward Said. It won’t go into specifics like who is Assad, but it explains the relationship between colonialism and the white washing of non-European histories. It’s a bit heavy, but Said is credited for creating the field of postcolonialist Middle Eastern history. The Imperial Security State by James Hevia is a good one to check out too. It goes into the British Raj and the relationship between the Russian Empire and the British Empire in Central Asia. Also The Great War in the Middle East by Rob Johnson explains how WWI affected and continues to affect the Middle East today, which helps spread some light on modern issues in the Middle East. I have some other names on my bookshelf that I can’t think of at the moment, but one you would like deals more specifically with the US and the wars in the Middle East starting with the Carter administration, but I’ll have to get back to you when I can remember those names.
For the Ottoman Empire, I think a good source could be "The Middle East: a brief history of the last 2,000 years" by Bernard Lewis. Still, there are some thesis of his that I don't agree with (the decline of the Ottoman empire having to do with nepotism and janissaries and civil servants jobs becoming hereditary) and he doesn't go into detail in 19th and 20th century history, which is probably what you're more interested about. I mean, to answer "who is Assad?" one part of the question goes back 800 years (who are the Shia in Syria?) and the other some 200 to 50 years, which deals mainly with colonization and decolonization, World War One, Sykes-Picot and Cold War. Unfortunately I didn't find one book that answers all the questions you have regarding Iran, Syria, Kurdistan, etc, which deals mostly with the 20th century.