Middle East Books

All stereotypes are broken with this unique view of a people and their eclectic influence on the American scene. The mostly black & white panoramic viewpoint maximizes the visual impact. The outstanding photo technique, large page size and strong composition make this a center piece of your home coffee table books to be enjoyed for years to come. I only wish several pages were devoted to the actual technical aspects of the shots

Remarkable images, extraordinary reproduction. Ironic that the publisher was put up for sale the day the book was published

This oversize coffee table book caught my eye in the bookstore. With a price of $67.50, its gotta be great to sell -- and it is. The photographs are truly outstanding and many outlandish. Jews on Harleys in front of a synogoge in Florida, Holocaust survivors visiting LA's holocaust museum, and a family of persian, jewish immigrants seated on a flying carpet in their neighborhood. The best part of this book is not that the photographer manages to capture the diversity of jews in the states but that each of the pictures he presents is stunning in its own right. Brenner managed to gain access to an unbeliveable number of private, Jewish forums, from Jewish Civil War buffs who get together in costume to re-enact period battles to Lesbian Jewish families, the collection is fresh, provocative, and rich

Surprising, moving, magical. Brenner's photographs speak volumes. I was most moved by a picture that includes not a single Jew. It features instead a panoramic shot of the main street of Billings, Montana, the citizens of which had filled the streets, each holding a menorah aloft in protest against a violent attack on a Jewish resident's home. A book that claims to, and succeeds at, framing the diversity of American Jewish experience also succeeded in reaffirming my faith in the decency of humankind.

Rivers' book is a page turner. The fast paced action keeps the story moving but is also that which makes it the least realistic. The reader is very aware that what he is reading bears as much resemblance to how a full scale bio-terrorism attack would be handled as an Indiana Jones movie bears to actual archeology. Which is not to say that Rivers' primary thesis and the events/responses which are depicted are out of the question. They are not. It is just that the attack, if it was actually mounted, would have been far more devastating because the government response could never rise to the efficiency River's recounts.

The best aspect of the book is the detailed account of how the attack was formulated and executed. The degree of detail given was indeed scary and, since I am not qualified to speak to the technical details of the biological/genetic possibilities, I assume it is feasible. Rivers' descriptions and identification of the various organizations which would be involved in combating such an attempt was also helpful

Where Rivers' needs to grow as an author is in making his characters less stiff and robotic. When Dr. Ron Raines loses his live in girl friend, for whom he presumably had great affection, he accepts it with what seems to be no more than a passing thought - "I should have been with her when she died." That's about it. All of the other characters are sketched at about the same level. All it takes for the bad guy terrorist scientist to suddenly change his mind about the Great Satan Americans is for Dr. Raines to show him a little love. That's a bit of a stretch.

So... five stars for technical background and plot outline, three stars for character development averages out to four.

Good summer beach read. It'll take you 3-4 hours straight through.

Obviously the result of a combination of detailed medical knowledge, personal experience, comprehensive research, & a vivid imagination.

I an not starting this with a synopsis as this has been done by others brighter
and more articulate than I. This novel will keep you up at night thinking
about just how all of this is possible, how port security is spotty at its very
best not to mention our porous borders. This book is a wakeup call for what
can easily happen. You will not sleep well after reading this one.

In the riveting techno-thriller "The Jihad Germ", author T. N. Rivers draws upon his years of his experience as a military flight surgeon and a civilian emergency physician to add realism and plausibility to background details in a fictional story exploring the horrific possibilities of an advanced bioterror weapon developing in the hands of Islamic terrorists and its use against an American city. Bacterial gene replacement in a laboratory hidden by a Middle-Eastern government, combined with the porous nature of American port security result in a devastating attack on American soil. It's up to Dr. Ron Raines and nurse Christie Fellows to save the lives of citizens while FEMA, the CDC, and the U.S. Marine Chemical and Biological Incident Response Force struggle to contain the threat, while national intelligence agencies and the White House try to restore the balance of world power. A chilling, all-too-real account that could well be taken from tomorrow's newspaper headlines, "The Jihad Germ" is a superbly crafted novel and highly recommended reading from beginning to end.

Whether you have children or not, this book will help you plan your Israel travel. It lists many attractions, tourist sites, museums, national parks, etc., including hours of operation, phone and fax numbers, and whether there is a fee. As a professional travel planner specializing in Israel travel, I highly recommend this book to all my clients, even those traveling without children!

We used this book every day of our 2 week trip to Israel with 3 children aged 1-8. Our friends then borrowed the book for a 3 week trip with 5 children aged 6-16. The sections of the book are broken down by geography, with handy maps to assist you in setting up your schedule, whether your hotel is in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tiberias or Eilat. The greatest benefits of the book include the phone numbers of the tourist sites as well as the hours which each location is open. The author even recommends ideal hotels and activities based on your children's ages.

This book is does an OK job describing activities for kids, but it is VERY outdated. Israel is changing rapidly and this book is in need of a new revised edition. It lists places like the Dolphinarium as a place to take kids. The Dolphinarium was turned in to a disco years ago.

You can use this book for some ideas, but double check everything before you go, the activity may no longer be there.

Barbara Sofer is one of the most knowledgable writers on everyday life in the land of Israel. In this outstanding guide she pays special attention to the attractions which will be especially appealing to families.
Israel is a small country extremely crowded with interesting sights and people.
This is an outstanding guidebook to a remarkable land.

As a collector of 100% natural dyed Turkish Kilims, my wife and I have now replaced this particular book over many within our library for information, data and usefulness in understanding and relating to the carpets (kilims) in and around the regions of Turkey... many of the regions and carpets, we are quite familiar with as we have are fortunate to have a 2nd home in Antalya.

Simply stated, this book is a must for anyone that desires to learn or begin the quest and addiction for kilims. We have actually discovered that one of the notable kilim dealers in Antalya uses this book as well and highly recommends it. One of the important keys to knowing and understanding kilims lies with "KNOWING THE COLORS".

Exceptional !!

This book is very informative. I wanted to become knowledgable about Kilims and this book has really helped me to become so. The photographes are very beautiful. I hope to become an advid collector and with the information from this book I am a confident buyer.

This is my favorite book on Flatweaves. It covers more than just kilims and is very comprehensive. If you are interested in any Flatweaves you should have this book. I use this book when I am trying to identify flatweaves and I find it a simple, user friendly, but comprehensive resource.

Gorgeous rugs. Gorgeous photographs. Lots of them. For people who love oriental rugs, especially funky tribal rugs, and for people who are demanding about the pleasure they expect from rug books--this book is a great find.

This is essential for understanding North Korea and how it relates to the world of today. To undestand North Korea you must understand it's founder Kim Il Sung. The book goes on to show how he created a Stalinist State and huge army to insure it's survival. It talks about the many attempts on the lives of south korean presidents and his unpredictable nature that he passed on to his son and successor. Understandin Kin Il Sung will help the reader understand why Noth Korea is today run more like a cult than a country and why it is the most secretive country in the world today and a failed society.

In 2001 I visited North Korea and found this book very helpful because our guides would only give us the official version of their history. The book is packed full of information and the only one I have found that explains how Kim Il Sung gained and kept power. Dae-Sook Sue has put a great deal of reseach into the book and let's hope he writes another book on North Korea covering Kim Jong Il present reign and the future of the country. There is no other county like North Korea so I recommend reading the book then visiting the country.

This book is advanced but very good. It is complicated at times but in the long run it is good for reports or projects. It is very interesting. Kim Il Sungs career is much more interesting than Lenin's or Stalins. Very Good!

Ever wonder why North Korea is such a ... arrogant little country? This book will tell you exactly why. Guerrilla leaders scarred by years of eating rats, living in the hills, and butchering Japanese invaders do not necessarily possess the skills needed to run a country! This book is a must for anybody interested in the current standoff between America and Pyongyang, which North Korea seems to believe will end with the Korean peninsula being devoured by a sea of fire. Kim Il Sung's early days as a revolutionary and guerrilla fighter are given much attention, as are the purges he carried out in order to become the supreme leader. If you're looking for a play-by-play account of the Korean War, look elsewhere though- this book sweeps quickly through that period. The author focuses primarily on Kim's tight-rope act between the Soviet Union (which gave him the job in the first place), China (which saved his butt from the American-led U.N. forces), and the U.S. (which has refrained from crushing lil' Kim's summer camp of starvation in the name of East Asian harmony). Other topics addressed by the author include: Kim's frustration at not being acknowledged as the Emperor of the Third World, Kim's frustration at not being able to feed his population while spending 99.99% of his country's slight earnings on military hardware, Kim's frustration that the rest of the world didn't care much about the Korean problem (until now, of course), and Kim's frustration at not receiving a THIRD honorary degree from some university in Africa or Southeast Asia (naw, just kidding...but you get the point). The only complaint I have is this: the avalanche of names and details that sometimes disrupts the narrative. Perhaps a little too scholarly for anybody not specifically interested in the history of the North Korean Communist Party from 1946-1980's. Still, if you can get past this, the book is rewarding, and one will walk away knowing who Kim Il Sung was, how his son maneuvered into power, and why North Korea is a country with a Napoleonic complex.

This is a dandy book! The charismatic and fascinating persons featured have been the subject of much biographical treatment on a individual basis, but never woven into a timeline such as has been done by these authors ... a continuum which truly puts them into perspective. It shows what it was that made each of them worth knowing about, and illuminates their crucial roles in the drama that has devolved into a world scene that persists to this very day! A scene that seems relentless in determining the fates of so many on this planet no matter how fervently it may be wished that the destiny which seems to chain them to us might be disjoined, once and for all! Their successive stories make any fictional adventure pale to paltriness. What a job it was to do this ... to wrangle a monumental pile of researched elements into their proper sequences and cross-linkages with few, if any, errors! (Something I've considered doing with just a couple of these folks and found too daunting for my meager talent and store of patience, Wow!) Its extensive bibliography provides a rich resource to use as a basis for further inquiry and research in support of essays, articles, and yet additional insightful books similar to this and to such gems as "Milner's Kindergarten," "A Peace to End All Peace," and "Troublesome Young Men." Kudos to Meyer and Brysac!

Scholarly and well written without being boring or pedantic--absolutely fascinating insight into events unfolding in the Middle East today--amazing new facts no one seems to be aware of.

Although Meyer and Brysac don't tell why Americans learn so disastrously little from history, they've made some of the history itself wonderfully accessible. Now they do that for the modern history of the Middle East, whose "three universal faiths" extol "brotherhood and peace, compassion and humility" but whose "mortal disciples through the ages have engaged in reciprocal butchery. The very landscape of the Holy Land forms an outdoor museum of warfare." That's a sample of writing in this elegant, instructive book, the kind whose vividness thrusts readers through the otherwise baffling story of a region where the United States is again bogged down in confusion and loss, thanks to hubris grounded in ignorance.
What importance! How, forgive me, entertaining the authors make it! "Modern history" here means from roughly 1880, when the rapacious British invaded and occupied Egypt, largely to ensure control of the new Suez Canal. It ends with now, the last kingmaker - the predominantly greedy, short-sighted, full-of-themselves imperialists through whom Meyer and Brysac dramatically story-tell - being Paul Wolfowitz of very recent ill fame. I happened to have known two of the intruders: Kim Roosevelt and Miles Copeland, who bragged about their leading CIA roles in deposing Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq of Iran in 1953. Simplifying hard, the Land of the Free that has little compunction about using the dirtiest tricks while preaching democracy to the world has paid and will continue to pay hugely for that folly, whose current expressions draw heavily on the older ones.
However, Kingmakers doesn't simplify, nor pull punches either. Weary as everyone is of "this is a book every literate citizen should read," I find myself saying it to friends.

The legacy of British Imperialism in the middle east, is the zone of conflict that still persists in the region. This is a fantastic book which clearly explains the history of British meddling, and the consequences of their perfidy.

I've scrutinized a bunch of guide books about Istanbul and Turkey, but I can easily say that I've never met that kind of detailed and well-pictured book on Istanbul. Especially the historical (Ottomans, their architecture) pictures are awesome. The only negative critic about the book for me is the out-of-date photos. For example, the Turkish policemen do not wear those uniforms and most of the bills (banknotes) that were shown inside the book are out of circulation.

This is the most brilliant book on Istanbul in it's cathegory. Very coplexed and detailed on sites, historical monuments, museums and daily life. A must see before visiting Istanbul and Turkey.

I personally do not review many products unless they are really bad, or in this case exceptional.

This book is awesome! Maybe it is because I am new to using guide books, but I can't image a better book. I read a number of reviews prior to my purchase and my 2 week trip to Istanbul which lead me to this one. I have to say that its small size and wonderful insight makes it a must. I am not much for reading history and thought that the book was a bit dry until I landed in Turkey to experience it for myself. I began with the introduction and history, but used the book to help me locate key locations.

Here is how I found the most useful way to use this guide:
1.) Skim through it looking for points of interest as well as other locations near by. This is great to do the night before or the morning of so that you can plan your day of tourism.
2.) Go there and don't forget the book.
3.) Since the best way to travel in Istanbul is by public transportation there is also a change to read while traveling to your locations.
4.) Explore the locations using the approach from the guide or just wing it (personally I found it best to use it as a guide and then explore on my own).
5.) Once you have finished your day and settled in it was wonderful to go back to the guide and read more about the locations I visited. This gave me a chance to bring into context what I saw.
6.) After reviewing where you had been, why not pick you next locations for the following day.

I am not much for history as a study, but when it comes to living history you can't beat the experience as well as the help this guide brings! I would say that with the guide my trip was at least 10 times as pleasurable and insightful. There may be better, but this was so good it does not leave you wanting.

One last piece of advice...I found that without having someone who knows Turkish with you it is not the easiest tourist destination. There are ways to get by, but knowing the language provides so much more opportunity. You will also find that everything costs more if you are not with someone who is native.

Have fun and happy travels!

This book is in the same genre as 'Eyewitness' with lush illustrations and colour. Possibly more detailed in historical information. Arranged thematically. An excellent armchair companion guide for before or after a trip. I would take 'Eyewitness' with me for the practical information (pictures of bus tickets; how to pay a dolmus driver; what to say to alight from a dolmus). But I am so pleased I purchased this book as well. Will tuck it into my bag next time, space permitting.

This book is so far the best book about the Kurdish history that I have come across. It is a very detailed and superbly written book. However, the author would benefit the world even moreif he produced a 'bigger and heavier' updated version.

This book is the ultimate reference when it comes to the Kurds and all aspects of their life. The analysis is deep, academic, and far from biased. Although some of the historical facts Professor Izady provides need to be prooved, the historical research seems very miticulous. Although this book serves its purpose perfectly, such a small handbook isn't enough to eliminate the numerous common misconceptions and fallacies about the Kurds and their history. We need a far more detailed book with more proofs about what it states, and I hope that Izady's next book will be like that. Anyway, despite being a bit outdated, this is the finest refernce on the Kurds available so far. Highly Recommended!!

Although 8 years old, this still remains the best book I have ever read about the Kurds. We Armenians know very little, and that also so biased, when it comes to our neighbors the Kurds. I think this book should be made a mandatory reading in all the Armenian schools.

The book is like an encyclopedia and the author is successful in not taking any political side. He is also respectful to the Armenians and their Genocide in which as Izady writes, the Kurdish tribal leaders took part with the Turks. His treatment of the Kurdish culture, art and history is as fascinating as his coverage of politics, religion, langauge and demography. It is an excellent resource.

It is a pitty that this book is not more widely known or available in the Armenian language. I wished the publishers of the book would consider translating and publishing this into other languages too and not just English.

The author covers every aspect of Kurdish life, especially religion quite well. The book is a good approximation of the country studies available from the library of congress on the various recognized independent states.

Since Kurdistan is not recognized as an independent state, it does not have a library of congress handbook. As a replacement, Izady's book is a good substitute.

There are a few difficulties and inaccuracies in the book, but given its size and its attempt to cover such a long span of history, these mistakes can be forgiven. For example, the claim that Armenian King Tigranes II The Great was of Kurdish origin is at best very debatable. The King is a central figure in Armenian history, and Izady's initial words seemed to be aimed at attacking Armenian history. But he quickly repairs this potential point of contention and clearly points out that the King probably regarded himself as an Armenian whatever his origins may have been.

In addition to bringing to life history that is treated as a taboo subject in Turkey, Iraq and other Middle Eastern and even some Western states. Izady does a great deal to shatter the image of religious conformity in the region. We learn of the Yazidis, the Cult of angels, the Alevis, the Syrian Arab Alawites (Nusayris), and other groups including Kurdish Christians.

This book is a must-read for every United States Middle Eastern policy maker, because it draws a clear, accurate flesh and blood picture of a people long-maligned, massacred and misunderstood. Every American analyst interested in learning more about the Kurds, their life, survival, tragedies and triumphs should read this book as a introduction to this remarkable nation.

Gershon Shafir published this book in 1996 through University of California Press. Certainly it is a major contribution to undersatnding the fundamental problems of any attempt at a settlemen in Israel/Palestine. Working in the same vein as Benny Morris, Tom Segev, Ilan Pape, and other "new" historians (the name is used in both praise and derision), Shafir crafted an impressive work that attempted to cut through Zionist and Palestinian myths and examine what truly happened from 1882-1914. However, after all his impressive research, readers feel like there may be more to the story than written.

After a comparison and contrast of different styles of colonialism (he asserts that Zionism can best be understood as a form of colonialism), he reviews Zionist land policies. For Shafir, agriculture and the land is the root of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While this is certainly a hugely important issue, he neglects the urban roots of conflict in favor of his agricultural theories. Ironically, this only furthers the myth of Israelis returning to the land, whereas most future Israelis lived in cities. Without examining the urban aspects of the conflict, he only tells part of the story. Also, his work is Ashkenazi-centric (European Jewish). True, the leaders of Zionism were mostly Central/Eastern European during this period, but he virtually marginalizes the story of other Zionists.

Nevertheless, Shafir's contribution to the academic literature as it offers a glimpse into the agricultural roots that contributed to the modern conflict.

This is an excellent examination of the economic forces that have shaped the conflict in Palestine/Israel.

This is an example of a revisionist argument at its best. Gershon Shafir uses the same primary sources the major Middle-East historians have used for decades and offers up an economic, non-religious, and elegantly simple explanation of the conflict as it exists today.

Allow me to begin with a summary and then indulge me a bit more time to discuss Lawrence. This volume is a wonderful read and I much enjoy dual biographies that develop a time and place as well as intersect events. Florence's book is most entertaining and enlightening with the emphasis placed mainly on the story of Aaron Aaronsohn and his sister Sarah. Lawrence (yes, Lawrence of Arabia) is somewhat short changed and summarized to quickly. I think Ronald Florence's objective was to market the hook to those who have interest in Lawrence literature only to introduce us to the amazing Aaronsohn family. Their support for Zionism through science and spying on behalf of the British against the Turks in WWI is simply an incredible story. I very highly recommend the book. Now let me digress for a while to say that I am a collector of T.E. Lawrence literature and purchased this book as part of that collection. My recommendation to those who want to explore Lawrence more deeply is to read two other great biographies. The first won the Pulitzer price and is A PRINCE OF OUR DISORDER, THE LIFE OF T E LAWRENCE by John E. Mack (1976) and the second by Jeremy Wilson, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF T E LAWRENCE. I noted that Ronald Florence referenced that Jeremy Wilson reviewed his text and made comments. Also, of note is that Jeremy Wilson and his wife Nicole own a private publishing house in England called Castle Hill Press. They have a web page and have printed several limited editions of Lawrence books, most notably the complete 1922 text of SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM which Florence mentions is his source reference. I recommend that you visit their web site and also pick up these two other volumes to really cover Lawrence in great detail. But a good place to begin is with Ronald Florences creative and well written LAWRENCE AND AARONSHOHN. (I notice that Amazon.com has this title now at bargin price which is even all the more reason to pick it up.)

All too often nonfiction authors spin a captivating tale based on poorly researched nonsense, relying on secondary sources with an occasional dip into a primary source composed in the only language of which the author has full command. Ronald Florence is not such an author. He is a skilled historian with a talent for painting lush portrayals of great personalities while capturing fine details that surprise the reader. In "Lawrence and Aaronsohn," one of our heroes is a young and romantic scholar-soldier whose over-confidence drives him across the desert to victory in Damascus and personal suffering and humiliation in Deraa. The other is an ornery genius who, anxious over the fate of the starving Jews at the hands of the Turks, abandons science for espionage opening the doors of the Middle East to Great Britain while sealing the fate of his sister Sarah. Florence's narrative will not only entertain you but may also offer you some insight into the seeds of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

As in a number of new books such as Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict this book seeks to examine the 'seeds' of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But the approach here is quite original, in a dual biography of a leading Zionist and Arabist the roots of the conflict are drawn by those actors who worked to create the facts on the ground after the First World War. T.E. Lawrence was one of the most celebrated figures of the war who helped lead an irregular force of Arabs under the Sharif of Mecca, the Hussein family, to victory in Damascus. But Lawrence was more than a British officer, he was a lover of the Arabs and adopted their cause as his own. He drew maps granting them new countries and wanted to decide the future of the Middle East based on his Bedouin friends. But time was against him as Ibn Saud conquered Arabia and Faisal and Abdullah were ejected, eventually pushed from Damascus they found themselves in Iraq and Jordan. Only in Jordan would the legacy of Lawrence find root in a Bedouin state and a new Lawrence, Sir John Bagot Glubb, would help lead Jordan to a partial victory over Israel in 1948.

Juxtaposed with Lawrence is Aaron Aaronsohn, a Palestinian born Jew, he was a leading agronomist who desired to build a new Jewish state in Palestine. He worked to develop land purchased for Jewish pioneers. Aaronsohn saw in the British key allies of the Jews and as victors they would be the ones to help guide the Jews to statehood and safety.

The book is a series of vignettes of these two men as they lobby England to support their two causes and although originally the causes are mutually beneficial(King Faisal supported the Zionists in Palestine), eventually they become antagonistic by the 1920s.

The biggest drawback of this book is that these men are in-comparable. Aaronsohn is a Jew from a backward province, T.E Lawrence an Englishmen from the greatest power of the day. Instead the book could have compared Lawrence with Richard Mienertzhagen or Orde Wingate, both of whome were pro-Zionists and were like a T.E Lawrence for the Jews of Palestine.
Nevertheless this is a well written and interesting book.

Seth J. Frantzman

Through careful research and telling, Florence tracks T. E. Lawrence as he seeks to help the Arabs (whom he has romanticized since childhood) help the British in WWI. Similarly, he tracks Aaron Aaronsohn, who bravely and methodically parleys his agricultural research station's observation capability into war intelligence for the British. Both men see war participation as a stragegy to advance their skeptical consitituencies in the aftermath of war. Both have to work to get the ear of the British bureaucracy.

One of Florence's theses is that in the work of Lawrence and Aaronsohn we can see the beginnings of the Arab Israeli conflict. The other is that while Lawrence is better known, Aaronson's work is more lasting.

I was particularly drawn to the childhoods of the two men. Lawrence's was a 99% guarantee that he'd be eccentric. Aaronsohn's brought to life the early days of Israeli settlers, how they came to the Middle East and how they contended with both European patrons and Ottoman overseers. There are many well written episodes, besides those of the childhoods these include tense moments in spying, Sarah Aaronsohn's ultimate sacrifice and descriptions of some of the Arab operations.

The text devoted to Lawrence's loss of his manuscript and Aaronsohn's death is short in relation to their respective impact, but both are followed by a very good analysis of the impact of the men's lives on the future.