Yemen
Dancing on the Heads of Snakes
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Yale University Press
Published:15th Mar '10
Should be back in stock very soon
Yemen is the dark horse of the Middle East. Every so often it enters the headlines for one alarming reason or another—links with al-Qaeda, kidnapped Westerners, explosive population growth—then sinks into obscurity again. But, as Victoria Clark argues in this riveting book, we ignore Yemen at our peril. The poorest state in the Arab world, it is still dominated by its tribal makeup and has become a perfect breeding ground for insurgent and terrorist movements.
Clark returns to the country where she was born to discover a perilously fragile state that deserves more of our understanding and attention. On a series of visits to Yemen between 2004 and 2009, she meets politicians, influential tribesmen, oil workers and jihadists as well as ordinary Yemenis. Untangling Yemen’s history before examining the country’s role in both al-Qaeda and the wider jihadist movement today, Clark presents a lively, clear, and up-to-date account of a little-known state whose chronic instability is increasingly engaging the general reader.
"The West would do well to take one precaution and read Victoria Clark’s excellent new book on the country, part history and part travelogue. Clark leads the reader through Yemen’s turbulent past with humor and perception."—Richard Beeston, London Times
"Her book is a lively mix of politics, travelogue and history . . . Easily the best and most readable account of Yemen’s current problems and their daunting complexity. Clark brings the story right up to date."—Brian Whitaker, The Guardian
"Ms. Clark paints a more nuanced picture . . . The author illustrates her analysis with a string of vignettes drawn from her intrepid journeys into the remotest parts of the country . . . This book is compulsory reading for anyone who wants to get to grips with Yemen’s pit of slithery serpents."—The Economist
"An experienced foreign correspondent casts a timely light on the complex fissiparous, impoverished country now seen as a haven for Al-Qaeda."—Harry Eyres, Financial Times
"Excellent new book on the country, part history and part travelogue."—Richard Beeston, London Review of Books
"Victoria Clark's timely book offers a vivid portrait of Osama Bin Laden's ancestral homeland."—Lucy Popescu, Tribune
“Clark’s command of her subject allows her to write in a serious but fluid style that acts to invite readers from all backgrounds to delve into her world of Yemen.”—The Majalla
"A clear, immensely absorbing introduction to Yemen's complicated history and opaque politics."—Owen Bennett-Jones, BBC World Service
ISBN: 9780300117011
Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 21mm
Weight: 522g
328 pages