John Keay's new history of the British in the modern Middle East, the best for almost 40 years, tells us precisely why in the Arab heartlands of Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq we are (in MacDonald's phrase) "unpopular, positively disliked, even hated". Keay dutifully describes acts of duplicity and brutality by the French in Syria and the naivety and negligence of the Americans since the second world war. But those are interludes. His chief focus is Britain and her haphazard campaign to create a cheap, modern empire from the Ottoman dominions after the first world war; to maintain that empire in a state of subordination through puppet monarchies, coercive bilateral treaties, air-power and general bonhomie; and then, at the worst possible moment, to turn her back on the whole mess. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jun/21/featuresreviews.guardianreview20 Its a book review, but offers some glimpses, of the recent past.
