Growing up is a universal experience, but the particularities of homeland, culture, ethnicity, religion, family, and so on make every childhood unique. To give Western readers insight into what growing up in the Middle East was like in the twentieth century, this book gathers thirty-six original memoirs written by Middle Eastern men and women about their own childhoods.

Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, a well-known writer of books and documentary films about women and the family in the Middle East, has collected stories of childhoods spent in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey. The accounts span the entire twentieth century, a full range of ethnicities and religions, and the social spectrum from aristocracy to peasantry. They are grouped by eras, for which Fernea provides a concise historical sketch, and include a brief biography of each contributor. The introduction by anthropologist Robert A. Fernea sets the memoirs in the larger context of Middle Eastern life and culture.

As a collection, the memoirs offer an unprecedented opportunity to look at the same period in history in the same region of the world from a variety of very different remembered experiences. At times dramatic, humorous, or tragic, and always deeply felt, the memoirs document the diversity and richness of people's lives in the modern Middle East.

This book gathers thirty-six original memoirs written by Middle Eastern men and women about their own childhoods

About the Author
Elizabeth Warnock Fernea (1927-2008) was Professor of Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Reviews
... these accounts eloquently portray extended families at work, the needs and responsibilities they represent, and the ways in which modern Middle Easterners never "leave home"... Books of this kind, which reveal the great variety of Middle Eastern Experiences, which bring a human dimension to what otherwise might seem a set of abstractions, and which enable the reader to engage in life events that most of us share, have an important role to play in the university classroom. They are a key weapon in the university's teacher's struggle against prejudice and ignorance."--Times Literary Supplement, 24 October 2003



Book Information
ISBN 9780292725478
Author Elizabeth Warnock Fernea
Format Paperback
Page Count 365
Imprint University of Texas Press
Publisher University of Texas Press
Weight(grams) 454g