War & Politics in the Desert Saul Kelly Taschenbuch: 256 Seiten Verlag: Society for Libyan Studies (1. August 2010) ISBN-10: 1900971097 ISBN-13: 978-1900971096 Größe und/oder Gewicht: 21,4 x 14 x 1,6 cm
Looks interesting, Kuno. Have you read his book on Zerzura? The Hunt for Zerzura: The Lost Oasis and the Desert War (John Murray, 2002) I picked up a biography of Almasy almost by accident a couple of years ago and found it very interesting. CS
Captain; I jost got the book today. Had not yet time to read it... too ocupied with what is going on in today's Libya.
Kuno As an old Libya hand how do you read the present situation in the country? Read a report today about the border between Libya/Egypt as being open to all at present the police and army have gone over to the protesters there.
Captain; I jost got the book today. Had not yet time to read it... too ocupied with what is going on in today's Libya. Entirely understandable. I hope you get to enjoy it soon and have peace of mind. CS
Saul Kelly, the author of “The Hunt for Zerzura: The Lost Oasis and the Desert War” and “Cold War in the Desert” has again provided an excellent book which brings light into a normally widely disregarded field of the recent history of Libya – the political tactics and planning in the background of the Desert Campaign of world War II. At the beginning of the war, the British in Egypt were keen to convince the native population of Libya and in particular of the Eastern Region, Cyrenaica, to take up weapons against Italy as their colonial ruler to assist the allied cause against the Axis forces. Afterwards, when it became more and more realistic that the Axis (Italy and Germany) would not win the Desert War and therefore Italy would lose its colonies in Africa, the discussion went on to the question, who shall rule Libya after the war. Whilst an independent Libya was not yet an option some sort of an autonomous region of Egypt was the favourised idea. This idea seems even to have found that acceptance of the Libyan leaders in exile. But in parallel, it was also thought to hand over Libya to Turkey, to motivate them to join the war on the allied side and several other scenarios were discussed. Towards the end of the World War II, with the first signs of the beginning “Cold War”, the British had to face a growing interest of the Sowjets in control over Libya. This was a direct and grave threat to the British interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. As already in his previous books, the author has done an exhaustive research in the British archives and considered as well French and US sources. The files he had drawn his information from are properly listed in the Annexure of the book as it is the already known practice of Saul Kelly. “War and Politics in the Desert” is written in a straight and clear language and easy understandable as well for the reader who might not (yet) be familiar with the Desert War and the development of Libya. In addition, and this is what makes this book really a valuable asset, it is the only publication dealing with this subject in such detail and I can highly recommend it therefore to everybody.
