A Line in the Sand
Britain, France and the struggle that shaped the Middle East
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A Line in the Sand
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Narrated by:
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Peter Noble
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By:
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James Barr
About this listen
‘One of the unexpected responses to reading this masterful study is amazement at the efforts the British and French each put into undermining the other’ Spectator
A fascinating insight into the untold story of how British-French rivalry drew the battle-lines of the modern Middle East.
In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, two men secretly agreed to divide the Middle East between them. Sir Mark Sykes was a visionary politician; François Georges-Picot a diplomat with a grudge. They drew a line in the sand from the Mediterranean to the Persian frontier, and together remade the map of the Middle East, with Britain’s 'mandates' of Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq, and France's in Lebanon and Syria.
Over the next thirty years a sordid tale of violence and clandestine political manoeuvring unfolded, told here through a stellar cast of politicians, diplomats, spies and soldiers, including T. E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. Using declassified papers from the British and French archives, James Barr vividly depicts the covert, deadly war of intrigue and espionage between Britain and France to rule the Middle East, and reveals the shocking way in which the French finally got their revenge.©2011 James Barr (P)2018 Simon & Schuster, UK
Critic reviews
What listeners say about A Line in the Sand
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 11-04-22
Excellent performance and interesting content
The audiobook is very well narrated and the book covers a lot of ground without omitting any detail. It manages to deal with the big picture as well as the individual actors within it and is sure to leave any listener well-informed but also deeply troubled as the effects of the power struggle between Britain and France continue to reverberate to this day. But the book is also relevant to the global power struggles we see today as the same conditions - mutual distrust, sacrificing global politics to domestic concerns and the inability or unwillingness to consider the other party’s perspective - exist as much today as they did back then.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 05-02-19
good research on the previously ignored topic
it was well researched and well written book on the subject conventional historiography somehow refused to recognize. a lot of new facts and details
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-01-20
Really enjoyable book
I found this book additive. Really enjoyed it. I learnt a great deal from this book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mark david
- 11-01-24
awesome storytelling
If you're interested in that period, this is a classic that lives up to expectations
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Oren Arad
- 10-07-24
Sets out to prove a thesis
The unfolding of the case is heavily anecdotal which make for a difficult storyline to follow. Not once the book avoids, mends or entirely contradicts known historical facts in order to make the point that the shaping of the middle east in the 20th century is purely an Anglo-French power struggle and all the other factors, including the Arab nationalism and the Zionism movement are merely pawns on the board. Unfortunately this reader is not convinced.
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