Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1229 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 1392 pages

The Sunday Times
'For 30 years [Fisk] has been an eloquent eyewitness to the
tragedies that have afflicted the Middle East...'

Independent on Sunday
'Robert Fisk writes with a marvellous resource of image and language'

The Sunday Times
'There is nobody in British journalism to match Robert Fisk. This book is his testament.'

Customer Reviews

Whodunnit story of the middle east
I was reading this book on Christmas Day and a friend of mine noticed me doing this and remarked jokingly "have you worked out who did it yet?" I replied yes, you meet the guy who did it in the first chapter. The rest of the book is an examination of why.
The guy who did it is, of course, Osama bin-Laden and Fisk details his three meetings with him pre September 11th. As might be expected, he's analysed his interviews with hindsight to see if there was any indication he missed that might indicate what was being planned. There were some indications, but who could have believed that he was serious or doing other than boasting? Fisk printed his interviews with Osama bin-Laden before September 11th and they elicited no stir of opinion - nobody took his threats seriously or figured he'd be able to carry them out.
The rest of the book details why he did it. The history of pretty much every country in the middle east and an examination of how the west was and is complicit in shaping the problems that afflict the region now. Much of this Fisk tries to connect to his father, who fought in the first world war when the boundaries and spheres of influence that define the middle east today were set up. I get this - it's not hard to see - but I think he fails to connect his father explicitly to these events (he was only a soldier, after all, not a policymaker or diplomat) and these sections don't gel that well - Fisk is trying to come to some accommodation with his dead father, some closure with his father's death, which is all very well but sort of private, IMO.
But the rest of the book is well worth reading. A country by country account of the middle east (with the exception of Lebanon, as he's covered that in detail in another book) starting with the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, going through The Gulf Wars, the Armenian Genocide, Israel, Algeria, etc. and ending with the American invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq. Full circle.
Definitely worth reading. Sort of long, but you can read each chapter separately.

Thought provoking - a must read book
This is a mightily impressive book, though in no way an easy read. It's not just the size (nearly 1,300 pages) it's the unrelenting horror that Fisk decribes. Ongoing decriptions of the inhumanity and evil he has encountered either directly or from eye witness testiment makes it a painful read right upto the end of the book.
In the book Fisk takes through a history of the Middle East conflicts he has covered as a journalist in the past 30 years from the Soviet invasion of Afgahnistan through to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, including the Iran-Iraq war, Iraeli-Palistinian conflict, Algeria and also including a chapter on the Armenian genocide. Throughout there is a reference back to historical events that have shaped the conflict and this is interwoven with a personal history of his parents and especially Fisk's journey to find out more about his father and his service at the end of the 1st World War.
This though, is no straight historical account, Fisk is constantly giving his viewpoint. He pulls no punches and his utter contempt for the corrupt and despotic regimes in the region is only beaten by his ongoing contempt of the involvement of the West in the region (and specifically America's support of Israel). He expertly and consistently shows up the hypocrisy and the self serving power politics, and the awful results it has on the populations of the region. It is this that makes the book, giving it power and is what sets you thinking. At the end of it you cannot fail to have changed some of your views, or to feel more passionately about the issues (you'll listen more carefully to the next news bulletin from Gaza or the West Bank). I for one, though, cannot agree with all that he says and the arguments he makes. It is very easy to point out all the time where people have made mistakes, taken the wrong decisions (whether the motive was good or bad). It's altogether more difficult to praise people having to make difficult decisions when there can never be an bloodless outcome, or to suggest the best way forward. This is where I feel Fisk doesn't deliver. At the end of the book I knew the true horror of the conflicts, the problems and the suffering there is. What I didn't have any sense of was what's the best way forward. I would have hoped that a man of Fisk's integrity, intelligence and knowledge of the area could have given his thoughts and ideas on this. I think he could have given us some hope, but the end I couldn't find any.
Neverless, this beats an pure narrative account of the recent history of the Middle East, it draws you in, makes you empathise and feel involved. It makes you think and makes you care, and that is no small achievement.

an absolutely exceptional book about the Middle East
Though I have seldom read books about the Middle East, I was absolutely fascinated by this one. The quality of Fisk's writing about this region is as high as Shirer's writing about the Nazi Germany, an exceptional testimony, full of personal experiences and reflections in depth, with a great sense of humanity.

It is difficult to forget the meeting with Ben Laden, the adventures on the roas of Afghanistan, or the visit of hospitals in Irak. Absolutely brilliant about the past and the present, and also a warning for the future.