The Nearer East

The archaeologist D. G. Hogarth (1862-1927) was, when he died, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and president of the Royal Geographical Society. He was instrumental in launching T. E. Lawrence's career, and himself became acting director of the Arab Bureau in Cairo during the First World War, also attending the Versailles and Sèvres peace conferences. This 1902 book is a regional study of the area from the Balkans to Iran, including north-east Africa. His survey, broadly based in geographical determinism, discusses geology, climate, and communication routes, as well as population distribution, ethnicity, and agriculture - including prescient observations about the conflicts of geography and ethnicity - and provides fascinating evidence for the British perception of the area in the build-up to the conflict. It also illuminates the close relationship between archaeological and political interests in the period and Hogarth's wide-ranging career in both fields.