A stimulating, well-researched examination of how postwar U.S. presidential decisions destabilized the Middle East.
Tracing seven decades of U.S. presidential missteps in Middle Eastern diplomacy.
Noted Middle Eastern studies scholar and author of Indecision Points: George W. Bush and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2014), Zoughbie presents an engrossing account of how the blunders, indecisiveness, and exalted hubris of 12 presidents from Truman through Trump’s first term have transformed the Middle East into a destabilizing force. Zoughbie argues that “as the United States replaced the Ottoman Empire, France, and Britain as the region's hegemon, it failed to act prudently, moving away from soft power toward an overreliance on hard power. Rather than prioritizing development and diplomacy—and diplomacy through development—U.S. foreign policy opted time and again for defensive military spending: coups, wars, and arms deals.” Through detailed case studies of each president, Zoughbie traces steady deterioration, from Truman’s shortsightedness—“By recognizing only Jewish and not Arab self-determination, with neither a bridge nor a partition plan, Truman virtually guaranteed the immediacy of a regional war”—to Kennedy's inability to curtail Israel’s weapon development, to Reagan’s presidency “characterized by alleged lawlessness, shady deals, and quid pro quos involving hostages,” with this pattern continuing through subsequent administrations. Somewhat surprisingly, only unelected Gerald Ford emerges favorably; Zoughbie praises his Mideast policy as “a magnificent achievement of modern statecraft,” noting that Ford demanded that Israel negotiate in good faith with Egypt and was willing to challenge the American-Israeli alliance to achieve peace. While Zoughbie in his prologue references recent events like the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, his analysis concentrates on the historical decisions that created today’s crisis. Acknowledging that regional problems stem from multiple sources—wealthy Persian Gulf nations prioritized modernization while poor countries descended into conflict, and leaders missed opportunities to improve their people’s lives—he concludes that decades of misguided American interventions significantly worsened conditions by fueling distrust, undermining stability, and perpetuating cycles of violence throughout the region.
A stimulating, well-researched examination of how postwar U.S. presidential decisions destabilized the Middle East.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781668085226
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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