Book Notes: Bernard Lewis

What went wrong?  Let's start with what's his name.

“P rof. LEWIS: How shall I put it? Let me s--let me put it this way.  Here you have in the Middle East a very ancient and a very great civilization, which for 1,000 years or so was in the very forefront of human endeavor. It was the richest, strongest, most powerful, most wealthy of--of all living societies.  It was also on the cutting edge of science, technology, in virtually every field. And then suddenly, within a very short period, this society is  eclipsed by--is--is overshadowed, outperformed in almost every respect by what they had hitherto regarded as the ignorant, barbarous infidels  beyond the northwestern frontier, namely, Christian Europe. Suddenly, instead of winning every war, they lost every war. ” Interesting Book Notes interview with Bernard Lewis , author of What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response.    Transcript  -  Video