Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes, Tamim Ansary

This book is PHENOMENAL. Read it RIGHT NOW.

I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone, especially if you've got any interest in current events (or history), but even if that's not normally your thing. The writing is exceptionally clear, and it covers topics you may have heard here and there, but puts them into context and makes sense of huge swaths of history normally dismissed in a sentence or two in Western history books. It also does a wonderful and even-handed job of explaining how the modern middle east came to be the way it is, and how the current world climate of distrust between the West and Muslim countries came to be the way it is. I got this copy from the library but have already purchased a paperback copy because I'll need to read it again and use it for reference. I have also already used it in all the world history classes I teach.

Grade: A
#24 in 2017