Glain, Stephen

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GLAIN, Stephen

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Home—Washington, DC. Office—Boston Globe, 135 William T. Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02107. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Journalist. Wall Street Journal, New York, NY, journalist, 1998–2001; Boston Globe, Boston, MA, journalist, 2001–.

WRITINGS:

Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants: The Economic Collapse of the Arab World, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to several newspapers, including Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe.

SIDELIGHTS: Journalist Stephen Glain has spent much of his career covering the economic challenges that face the Middle East for such publications as the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe. Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants: The Economic Collapse of the Arab World, Glain's first book, traces the history of that region's troubled economy, as well as spotlighting many Arab entrepreneurs as they struggle to make ends meet in the face of war and economic decay.

Virginia Q. Tilley, writing in the Boston Globe, described Glain's book as "a mosaic portrait of a region sliding toward economic crisis, through vignettes and interviews in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, 'Palestine' (the West Bank), Iraq, and Egypt." Tilley further commented that Glain "brings a sophisticated analytical framework, as well as a discerning eye and a sense of humor" to his work. A reviewer for Library Bookwatch found that Glain's analysis "surpasses the usual history and contemporary political analysis to focus on … the region's economic structure," while Library Journal contributor Nader Entessar wrote that "His approach in bringing to life the everyday struggle of ordinary people is one of the book's most distinctive aspects." A Publishers Weekly reviewer remarked that, "As an impressive corpus of anecdotes and a testament to Glain's exciting and wide-ranging career as a journalist, this book is a success."