A timely, cogent, patient history of a seemingly intractable conflict told from a learned Palestinian perspective.
A systematic history of Palestinian persecution and a fair-minded agenda for mutual dialogue and recognition with the Israelis going forward.
Khalidi (Modern Arab Studies/Columbia Univ.; Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East, 2013, etc.), the editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, is the descendant of several illustrious early scholars and statesmen who attempted to navigate the first peace between the two peoples claiming ancient ties to the same land. The author begins this dogged chronicle of Palestinian injustices with a poignant letter he unearthed in a Jerusalem library, written in 1899 by his great-great-great uncle, the mayor of Jerusalem, to the “father of Zionism,” Theodor Herzl, reminding him respectfully of the folly of embarking on a Jewish nation within an already inhabited land and urging him “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Of course, that did not happen, and the Zionist vision gained momentum thanks to “international and imperial forces” such as the Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917, which, Khalidi notes, was “a declaration of war by the British Empire on the indigenous population.” The author also examines the declaration of the state of Israel in 1947; the Six-Day War of 1967; the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, directed at neutralizing the Palestinian Liberation Organization; the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, which began in 1987 and shifted the locus of disaffection from outside to inside the country; and the massive Palestinian demonstrations that have taken place in Israel as Hamas and the PLO played out their power struggle. Khalidi is clear about the “ideologically bankrupt political movements” that have made up Palestinian leadership, and he recognizes the need for a better understanding of how to positively affect public opinion in the U.S. Yet he also presses for significant work inside Israel, namely “convincing Israelis that there is an alternative to the ongoing oppression of the Palestinians.”
A timely, cogent, patient history of a seemingly intractable conflict told from a learned Palestinian perspective.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62779-855-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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