The story begins in the 1900s with a portrait of libyas desert terrain and the personalities that shaped its development professor vandewalle then covers libyas history during the italian colonial period 1911 1943 and the monarchy that ruled between 1951 and 1969. The modern history of independent libya as reflected in the many revolutions denoted under many moons began before romantic time or justinian scribing the history of libya comprises six distinct perspectives ancient libya the roman era the islamic era ottoman rule italian rule and the modern era. References metrics book description libya is coming in from the cold but for most of the three decades following the 1969 revolution the country was labelled a pariah state by the west dirk vandewalle one of only a handful of western scholars to visit during the time is intimately acquainted with the country. A history of modern libya libya is coming in from the cold but for most of the three decades following the 1969 revolution the country was labelled a pariah state by the west dirk vandewalle