A brief history of the Middle East

This is not A Brief History of the Middle East. It is 13 chapters presenting historical events from the Middle East in chronological order in which the author gives his opinions on the chapter's subject. Opinions such as his are not necessarily uninteresting but should not be part of the generally very good “A Brief History” series that Robinson publishes. I get that the Middle East is a difficult subject but as a primer this is fairly useless to anyone new to the subject.