Tracing today's troubles back to the imperial overreach of Great Britain and the United States, "Kingmakers" is the story of how the Middle East came to be, told through the lives of the Britons and Americans who shaped it. Some are famous (Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell); others infamous (Harry St John Philby, father of Kim); some forgotten (Sir Mark Sykes, Israel's godfather, and A.T. Wilson, the territorial creator of Iraq); some controversial (the CIA's Miles Copeland and the Pentagon's Paul Wolfowitz). All helped enthrone rulers in a region whose very name is an Anglo-American invention. Here is the British Empire's power couple, Lord and Lady Lugard (Flora Shaw): she named Nigeria, he ruled it; she used the power of "The Times" to attempt a regime change in the Transvaal. The character-driven narrative restores to life the colourful figures who gave us the Middle East in which we are enmeshed today.