During World War I, Britain made a series of conflicting promises to Arab leaders, French diplomats, and Zionist representatives regarding the future of the Middle East, pledging to help establish an Arab empire, then offering to divide the same land with the French. Historian Ralph Nurnberger examines the figures involved in the often-contradictory secret negotiations, as well as how the results contributed to more than a century of conflicts in the region and the establishment of the modern states of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.