Dan Cristea Cristea থেকে Grand Prairie, TX 75052, USA
If you want a thorough, fair, and genuinely unbiased text about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the middle east, specifically at it's flashpoint over Israel, this book is EXACTLY what you are looking for. Normally, I reserve 5 stars only for those books that I would definitely read again. Well, I'm not sure I'd really read this one again because it is so dense (good be a VERY good textbook for a class on the middle east), but it was soooooo good that I couldn't in good faith deny it that 5th star. The documentary begins in the early 1900's and goes up to post 9/11. I LOVED that Tolan a) put a human face on the conflict by making the documentary through the perspective of 2 very real and viable families and b) that he does not cast judgment or point blame for any history, merely states the facts as they happened and c) is painstakingly thorough with quotes and research on the politics of the area. I was amazed to discover how many truths I took for granted when perhaps the situation wasn't as clearly black/white aggressor/victim as I thought. Full of history and detail, which I ADORE in this kind of genre. I am intrigued by the authenticity created by the author's documentary techniques. He/she (is Sandy male or female?) never assumes or creates a person's feelings or thoughts arbitrarily. Only if there is a written documentation that they felt a certain way about something will that be part of the story. Creates a very frank and honest telling of a very complicated and EXTREMELY biased socio-political situation. I loved it! Oh, and just to clarify, this book is not the same as the film coming out. That one is fiction, this is documentary.