Ronald Storrs - by C Brad Faught (Hardcover)

About the Book

An analysis of Ronald Storrs's influence on Jerusalem and the British-controlled Middle East

Book Synopsis

Called by T.E. Lawrence, 'the most brilliant Englishman in the Middle East', Ronald Storrs was a prominent British diplomat and governor who played a leading role in the Anglo-Egyptian government and the Arab Bureau in the years immediately before and during the First World War. In 1917, Storrs became Military Governor of Jerusalem under the British Mandate, in his words, the first such governor 'since Pontius Pilate'.

This book tells the story of Storrs's life in the Middle East by weaving together international affairs, regional geopolitics, statecraft and biography to reassess his influence on British policy during the early years of the twentieth century. During this period, he witnessed the rise of Arab nationalism, the end of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of Zionism in Palestine. Storrs's governorship of Jerusalem came at a critical juncture in the city's post-war history, and C. Brad Faught analyses his attempts to forge a working peace between Arabs and Jews while seeking also to preserve and protect the Holy City's many sacred spaces. Storrs's record as a colonial governor is examined, and the sharp divisions within Jerusalem's body politic - some of which were created or exacerbated by Britain's own policies - are explored.

Included in the book are many of the leading figures in British and Middle East politics of the time, such as Edmund Allenby, Gertrude Bell, Winston Churchill, King Faisal, Sharif Hussein, David Lloyd George, Chaim Weizmann and Lawrence, By probing the life of an important but understudied British diplomat, the book makes an important contribution to deepening our understanding of the complicated history of the modern Middle East.

Review Quotes

"A long overdue biography of one of the most important Oriental Officers to have served in the Near East at a time of enormous change, Faught has produced a fascinating account of Ronald Storrs, a witness to and shaper of the modern Middle East. This biography restores agency and granularity to events that are far too often painted in broad brush strokes reducing key developments to structural imperatives without dissecting the motives, ambitions, successes, and failures of those involved. It is only by looking at the particular and individual as Faught has so elegantly done, that we can begin to understand the wider historical hinterland of the contemporary Middle East"
Ali Ansari, Professor, University of St Andrews, UK

"In Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T E Lawrence described Ronald Storrs as "the most brilliant Englishman in the Middle East". In Egypt between 1904 to 1917 he worked under Cromer, Kitchener, McMahon and Wingate. With Lawrence, he helped launch the 1916 Arab Revolt and, as the first British military governor of Jerusalem, was present at a pivotal moment in the city's history. After his lucid account of the 1921 Cairo Conference, Professor Faught has done another service to anyone interested in the origins of the modern Middle East - and its contemporary discontents. Storrs is today a sadly neglected figure. But he was a remarkable public servant and a witness to the last days of empire. Understanding what drove him and his contemporaries is essential if we want to understand what happened next. This book helps us to do so with admirable clarity, intellectual rigour and a degree of balance that is often lacking in other accounts of the period. Everyone with an interest in the region will benefit from reading it."
John Jenkins, Sir, Former British Diplomat, UK

About the Author

C. Brad Faught is Professor and Chair of the Department of History and Global Studies at Tyndale University, Toronto. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Senior Fellow of Massey College at the University of Toronto. He is the author of several books, including Cairo 1921: Ten Days that Made the Middle East.