Steel & Silk: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Sami Moubayed's 623 page opus is subtitled: Men and women who shaped Syria 1900-2000. This book contains short biographies of 341 Syrians whom Moubayed feels have had the largest impact -good or bad- on the history of the nation. He profiles personalities from all facets of public life including politicians, military officers, administrators, educators, and literary figures.

Despite the encyclopedic nature of this undertaking, the book is an easy and interesting read. Moubayed's writing style is clean and his biographies are peppered with interesting anecdotes or quotes that bring to life the personalities of the individuals. In his introduction, Moubayed makes the point that he has tried to be as objective as possible without leaving out inconvenient details that may expose a person's "flaws, foibles, failures and follies". He has largely achieved this objective with one exception. The politicians who have dominated Syria since 1970 seem strangely free of "flaws, failures, foibles and follies". In addition, his historical timeline contains some jarring entries. Consider this one: "1982. February. The Syrian Army went to war in Hama against the Muslim Brotherhood, who were calling for a holy war against the Baathists. The military uprising against the regime was crushed by force, and the armed forces pledged unwavering loyalty to Hafez al-Asad". Was that last part necessary or even factual for that matter? It has the fishy smell of propaganda. And how about the thousands, tens of thousands of civilians who perished? Whether this represents Moubayed's conscious sanitizing of recent Syrian history or just a case of self-preserving, self-censorship, only he can say.

Despite these shortcomings, this is an excellent reference book for anyone interested in Syrian history.