The book is fairly long, but Stan will be mostly covering the early history, which is about one third of the book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Arab_Peoples
http://www.amazon.com/History-Arab-Peoples-Albert-Hourani/product-reviews/0571226647/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1