Friday's Read: An Economic History of the Middle East

Charles Issawi. An Economic History of the Middle East and North Africa. (Columbia UP: 1982)

 Much like Roger Owen's The Middle East in the World Economy of almost the same year (New York: IB Taurus, first edition 1981) this is a superb text.

Historians don't much like economic history. It seems dry and devoid of the life and touch of humanity that animates much of our work. And, perhaps because of this, we do not tend to study it in depth. Almost no Middle East area studies programs include an economics (or economic history) requirement. At most - and this is an important exception - historians and political scientists of the Middle East will do some sustained study of political economy, and may read the two books referenced here as necessary and context-providing primers. Willed economic ignorance - or ignorance of the history of the economy on anything but a superficial level - is unfortunate and rather myopic, however, particularly when we are talking about a region of the world whose chief export has played such a mighty part on the world stage since the 1940s. Yet a sustained study of oil, and the history of the countries that export it - with the exception of Iran - are often left nearly entirely out of Middle East studies curricula.

This fact is doubly perplexing given the exceptional nature of Middle East economies: The oil-exporting states share the unique characteristic that their most lucrative commodity is also, for all intents and purposes, their only commodity. Those people who have control of the oil are those who wield political power. And because nearly all of the income to be had comes from oil, the population that does not have control over it is often poor. They cannot be taxed, or pay a tax so minimal that it contributes trifling government revenue compared to what is made from oil. And governments who derive little income from taxation have little motive to bend to the democratic will of the people. Oil, and its influence, have a profound effect on politics both domestic and international, and thus on the history and culture of the Middle East. Economics is quite important.