Area Studies and Social Science: Strategies for Understanding Middle East Politics (Middle East Studies)

Next time somebody in your department attacks area studies, make sure you've read this book. It's a useful defense of how to integrate area studies into social sciences. They argue that many area studies experts are using country expertise to advance or critique theory.I do wish the book had given more practical advice for comparativists, especially younger grad students. One of the biggest challenges is that students nowadays must know both the theory and area very well, which obviously isn't always possible. How should students manage that balance and invest their time and effort? That would have made this book not just useful but invaluable.

The longstanding debate in the study of Middle East politics Area Studies and Social Science has divided schorlas in two general camps. Thos upporting the political economy approach (and its variations, i.e. State focused studies) such as James Waterbury, Roger Owens or Nazih Ayubi to mention some and those preferring a more cultural approach based on modernization theory typified by Bernard Lewis. This book edited by Mark Tessler aims to draw from the various approaches to establish a balanced view which combines the more scientific 'methods' of describing the Middle East through social science with the historical and local specificity of area studies. Tessler's aim is to sgow that neother approach works well in isolation and that, indeed, a combination of these two provides the most effective framework to the study of the Middle East. The one discipline adding the necessary context to the other's discipline.The book features a collection of essays by noted scholars such as Lisa Anderson, Clement Henry and August Richard Norton (among others) which are invaluable to the specialist as well as those who have had less exposure to the debate. I especially enjoyed Lisa Anderson's essay in which she acknowledges some of the shortcomings of area studies and the need to combine more social science perspectives in the discipline. Nervetheless, the other essays are just as important and valuable.