This is an extremely readable and accessible work that will prove to be both enjoyable and intellectually beneficial to the general reader as well as scholars interested in the social sciences, history, and the Middle East and North African regions. The major contribution of this book is Dale s discussion of the Aristotelian roots of Ibn Khaldun s method and its use in his model of state formation.--Syed Farid Alatas, author of "Ibn Khaldun""