George Eden Kirk

George Eden Kirk (3 February 1911 – 18 February 1993) was professor emeritus of history at the University of Massachusetts and an authority on the history and politics of the Middle East.

Born in England, he graduated from the University of Cambridge before serving in intelligence with the British Army in the Middle East during the Second World War. He taught there after the war before holding a number of academic positions during which he produced ''A Short History of the Middle East'' in 1948 which received seven editions.

In 1957, he joined Harvard University where he produced his last book: the opinionated ''Contemporary Arab Politics: A Concise History'' (1961). He joined the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1966 where he taught ancient history. His obituary writer described him as sometimes seen by both Arab and Israeli as a polemicist and he admitted that some of his writing would be found "prejudiced, overstated, and tendentious" but he hoped that it would provoke others to provide their own interpretations. Provided by Wikipedia