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Sara Reguer Focuses on Churchill Reorganizing the “Fertile Crescent”
Sara Reguer, Winston S. Churchill and the Shaping of the Middle East 1919-1922. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2020, 238 pages, Amazon $22.95 (paperback).
Reguer on the Churchill dimension
Sara Reguer is a history professor of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College. Her study is part of the Academic Press series, Israel: Society, Culture, and History. She states her original intent was to cover the decade of 1912-1922, but this proved unwieldy. A generation ago, however, David Fromkin did just that with his classic and comprehensive A Peace to End All Peace (1989).
The author focuses on January 1919 to October 1922 when Churchill served in the cabinet of his “frenemy” David Lloyd George. He served first as Secretary of State for War and Air and then as Secretary of State for Colonies. In the latter, Churchill addressed the imbroglio following Britain’s defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East.
Unlike Fromkin, Reguer offers detailed look at Churchill’s actions in the Fertile Crescent, Palestine and Mesopotamia (modern Israel, Jordan, and Iraq), rather than the broader sweep including Turkey, Egypt, and Persia (Iran). She clearly did a substantial amount of archival research. We read extensive excerpts from letters, telegrams, memos, and meetings minutes, especially those written by Churchill. Yet Reguer is adamant that this is not a biography of Churchill. She poses two primary questions: Do individuals like Churchill make history? Are historical events bound by the present situation or merely by chance?
Churchill’s challenges…
Reguer presents a good account of Churchill’s reorganizing Middle East lands occupied by the British after the First World War. He had to be mindful of an expansionist Russia, a seemingly indifferent America, and Britain’s problematic ally and rival, France. He had also to balance age–old conflicts between Persians, Arabs, Jews, Greeks and Turks. His dilemmas were compounded by British economic weakness and the lack of a peace treaty with Turkey. He received conflicting or detached leadership from Lloyd George, who accused him of being obsessed with Russia. To this Churchill replied: “I may get rid of my ‘obsession,’ or you may get rid of me; but you will not get rid of Russia.” The embattled Churchill met the challenges, as he always did—head on—proving indeed that individuals can make history.
Ever-decisive, Churchill managed to tie everything together, with endless harangues, memos and proposals, at the Cairo Conference in March 1921. These deliberations included such notables as archaeologist Gertrude Bell and adventurer Lawrence of Arabia. Further clarifications were required over the 18 months. In the end, however, Churchill’s efforts brought a measure of stability to the Fertile Crescent. Britain was able to honor its 1917 commitment to a Jewish homeland in Palestine and secure governance of the Arab lands with an economical use of local rulers backed by homegrown gendarmes, small Imperial military detachments, and the power of the nascent Royal Air Force.
…And Reguer’s
The author was unfairly criticized on style points (among other things) in a rather harsh review. In reality it was a rant against Churchill’s legacy, focusing on his 8 February 1920 article “Zionism versus Bolshevism.” Published in the Illustrated London Herald, it was subtitled, “A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People.” Herein, Churchill identified three options for the world Jewry: “Nationalism” (fitting into the culture of countries where Jews resided); “Internationalism” (which to him meant Anarchism or Bolshevism); and “Zionism,” settling in Palestine. (See also “Churchill and the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'”)
Churchill can rightly be criticized for exaggerating the threat of “Internationalism.” And his argument that Zionism was compatible with local Muslim Arabs can viewed as naiveté. But the fact that later anti-Semites, such David Irving, cited this article, is hardly grounds for exaggerated criticism of Churchill. The review’s accusing Churchill of “undemocratic, one-sided, and discriminatory-to-racist notions” is simply ahistorical. Perhaps the reviewer was trying a bit too hard to burnish his Woke credentials.
Recommended with reservations
This book has commendable endnotes, a bibliography, and an index, but sadly no photographs, maps, or appendices. There are some small editorial problems such occasional typos (38), sentences that run together (13), and a maddening interchange of Faysal/Feysal/Feisal (60, 11, 146, etc.) referring to the first King of Iraq. Nevertheless, this otherwise exemplary study is a credible supplement to Fromkin’s Peace to End All Peace. It is as well an excellent complement to Martin Gilbert’s official biography. So kudos to Sara Reguer for another fine addition to the Churchill literary corpus.
The author
Archivist and historian William John Shepherd is a longtime contributor to the Hillsdale College Churchill Project.
Is Sara Reguer still alive?
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Yes, unless she died in the last three weeks.