British Imperialism and 'The Tribal Question '

British Imperialism and 'The Tribal Question' reconstructs the history of Britain's presence in the deserts of the interwar Middle East, making the case for its significance to scholars of imperialism and of the region's past. It tells the story of what happened when the British Empire and Bedouin communities met on the desert frontiers between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf, and traces the workings of the resulting practices of 'desert administration', from their origins in the wake of one World War to their eclipse after the next, as British officials, Bedouin shaykhs, and nationalist politicians jostled to influence desert affairs. Drawn to the commanding heights of political society in the region's towns and cities, historians have tended to afford frontier 'margins' merely marginal treatment. Instead, this volume combines the study of imperialism, nomads, and the desert itself to reveal the centrality of 'desert administration' and tribal control to the working of Britain's empire, repositioning neglected frontier areas as nerve centres of imperial activity. It was out on the frontier where key political bargains had to be struck; British control even deepened here as it retreated from Middle Eastern cities. British Imperialism and 'The Tribal Question' leads the shift in historians' attentions from the familiar, urban seats of power to the desert 'hinterlands' that state-centric approaches have long obscured.