A. Reviews: general

AN EARLY ISLAMIC FAMILY FROM OMAN: AL‐'AWTABI'S ACCOUNT OF THE MUHALLABIDS. By MARTIN HINDS. (Journal of Semitic Studies Monographs, 17.) Manchester, University of Manchester, 1991. vi, 97pp. £25.00.

THE ORIGINS OF WESTERN ECONOMIC DOMINANCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: MERCANTILISM AND THE ISLAMIC ECONOMY IN ALEPPO, 1600–1750. By BRUCE MASTERS. (New York University Studies in Near Eastern Civilisation, 12.) New York and London, New York University Press, 1988. xviii, 240 pp.

MOROCCO IN THE REIGN OF MAWLAY SULAYM#afAN. By MOHAMED EL MANSOUR. Cambridgeshire, MENAS Press, 1990. 248 pp. + bibliography.

THE BALKAN CITY 1400–1900. By NIKOLAI TODOROV. Seattle and London, University of Washington Press, 1983. xxvii, 641pp.

SOVIET POLICIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST: FROM WORLD WAR II TO GORBACHEV. By GALIA GOLAN. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990. viii, 319 pp. £27.50

THE SUPERPOWERS AND THE SYRIAN‐ISRAELI CONFLICT. By HELENA COBBAN. (The Washington Papers.) New York, Praeger (with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C.), 1991. xxii, 182 pp. Map, tables, foreword by Robert G. Neumann. $19.95

LITTLE COMMON GROUND: ARAB AGRICULTURE AND JEWISH SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE, 1920–1948. By CHARLES S. KAMEN. Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991. xi, 327pp. $39.95.

CITIZENS APART: A PORTRAIT OF THE PALESTINIANS IN ISRAEL. By AMINA MINNS & NADIA HIJAB. (Society and Culture in the Modern Middle East.) London & New York, I.B. Tauris, 1990. xiii, 210pp. £19.95.

THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABS IN ISRAEL. By DAVID KRETZMER. (Westview Special Studies on the Middle East.) Boulder, San Francisco & Oxford, Westview Press, 1990. xii, 197pp. £13.50.

WAS THE RED FLAG FLYING THERE? MARXIST POLITICS AND THE ARAB‐ISRAELI CONFLICT IN EGYPT AND ISRAEL, 1948–1965. By JOEL BEININ. London, I.B. Tauris, 1990. xix, 317pp. £29.95.

EGYPT AND THE CRISIS OF ISLAM. By ZAHIA RAGHEB DAJANI. New York, Peter Lang, 1990. ix, 255pp.

WAR AND PEACE IN THE GULF: DOMESTIC POLITICS AND REGIONAL RELATIONS INTO THE 1990s. By ANOUSHIRAVAN EHTESHAMI and GERD NONNEMAN (with a contribution by CHARLES TRIPP). Reading, Garnet Publishing, 1991. 287pp. £30.00.

SUDAN: HISTORY, IDENTITY, IDEOLOGY. Edited by HERVÉ BLEUCHOT, CHRISTIAN DELMET and DEREK HOPWOOD. (St Antony's Middle East Monographs, 25.) Reading, Ithaca Press, 1991. xvi, 298 pp. £25.00.

TRIBES, GOVERNMENT AND HISTORY IN YEMEN. By PAUL DRESCH. Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1989. xxix, 440pp. 14 bw. plates.

SOCOTRA: ISLAND OF TRANQUILLITY. By BRIAN DOE. London, Immel Publishing, 1992. 236pp. £50.00

AN OVERVIEW OF MODERN ARABIC LITERATURE. By PIERRE CACHIA. (Islamic Surveys.) Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1990. viii, 241pp. £30.00 (hb).

THE ARABIAN ORAL HISTORICAL NARRATIVE: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC AND LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS. By SAAD A. SOWAYAN. (Semitica Viva, 6.) Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1992. xii, 323pp. DM88.‐

ARABCARD. By ADRIAN BROCKETT, OWEN TAYLOR and IAN CLARK. Durham, University of Durham, Centre for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, 1991. (Version reviewed: 3.2). Base Package (3 diskettes): £50.

ISLAM IN EUROPEAN THOUGHT. By ALBERT HOURANI. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991.     

CIA plot,socialist conspiracy,or new world order? the origins of the Bilderberg group, 1952–55

Ever since its first meeting in 1954, the Bilderberg Group, a secretive annual conclave of Atlantic elites, has attracted conspiracy theories. Some observers have perceived it as a CIA plot to take the teeth out of the European left, others as a socialist conspiracy to undermine American capitalism. Recently it has been accused of being the seat of a hidden global government, the ‘New World Order’. The article draws on newly available archival sources to reconstruct the early history of the Group and test these conspiracy theories, concluding that Bilderberg was neither an entirely American nor European invention, but rather the product of a complex process of Atlanticist interaction.     

Lawrence's strategy and tactics in the ARAB revolt

Jason Abbott is Lecturer in International Politics in the Department of Political, International and Policy Studies, the University of Surrey. Formerly a Teaching Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies and Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, he is the author of several publications on South East Asian politics.

Oliver Franks is a postgraduate student in Asian Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies.     

ERIC NEWBY,THE HINDU KUSH AND THE GANGES

Hugh Carless was Oriental Secretary in the British Embassy in Kabul and then in the Embassy in Tehran in the 1950s. In 1956 he accompanied Eric Newby on their journey to the Hindu Kush. Later he was British Ambassador to Venezuela and a member of the Council of this Society.

This is the edited text of the lecture which he gave to the Society on 21 March 2007.