Engaging, evenhanded account of a major Middle East conflict that still resonates today.
A clinical dissection of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, published in time for the 50th anniversary.
In a book he has been researching for 20 years, visiting battle sites and poring over archival documents, Kaufman clearly delineates the conflict, both the immediate aftermath and the long-term effects. He examines the military buildup in terms of Israel’s use of aerial power to destroy Egyptian and Syrian forces and how Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and Syria’s Hafez el-Assad calculated their revenge. Despite intelligence reports, the Israeli military high command, led by Moshe Dayan, under the auspices of Golda Meir, dismissed alarms of imminent attack and was completely unprepared for a Syrian commando attack on Oct. 6. As Kaufman recounts in a play-by-play narrative, there were no tanks on the ground and few planes in the sky, and everything relied on quick improvisation. “Prior to the war,” writes the author, “the dictionaries of the world defined the Hebrew word mikhdal as a ‘failure to carry out something important.’ After the war, the word took on a new meaning, one that survives to this day: ‘a fiasco as monumental as the IDF’s failures in the opening days of the Yom Kippur War.’ ” Although each side claimed victory, Kaufman underscores that Israel had achieved its primary goal: “Egypt’s days of waging war against Israel were over.” Moreover, on March 18, 1974, the Arab oil embargo was lifted. This subject has been covered from a variety of historical and cultural perspectives, perhaps most memorably by Michael Oren in Six Days of War, but Kaufman’s contribution is a valuable addition to the literature. The book should prove useful for students of modern Middle East history as well as anyone interested in the mechanics of how the Arab-Israeli conflict has remained seemingly intractable for decades.
Engaging, evenhanded account of a major Middle East conflict that still resonates today.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781250281883
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
HISTORY | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | MILITARY | JEWISH | WORLD
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.
A harrowing expedition to Antarctica, recounted by Departures senior features editor Sancton, who has reported from every continent on the planet.
On Aug. 16, 1897, the steam whaler Belgica set off from Belgium with young Adrien de Gerlache as commandant. Thus begins Sancton’s riveting history of exploration, ingenuity, and survival. The commandant’s inexperienced, often unruly crew, half non-Belgian, included scientists, a rookie engineer, and first mate Roald Amundsen, who would later become a celebrated polar explorer. After loading a half ton of explosive tonite, the ship set sail with 23 crew members and two cats. In Rio de Janeiro, they were joined by Dr. Frederick Cook, a young, shameless huckster who had accompanied Robert Peary as a surgeon and ethnologist on an expedition to northern Greenland. In Punta Arenas, four seamen were removed for insubordination, and rats snuck onboard. In Tierra del Fuego, the ship ran aground for a while. Sancton evokes a calm anxiety as he chronicles the ship’s journey south. On Jan. 19, 1898, near the South Shetland Islands, the crew spotted the first icebergs. Rough waves swept someone overboard. Days later, they saw Antarctica in the distance. Glory was “finally within reach.” The author describes the discovery and naming of new lands and the work of the scientists gathering specimens. The ship continued through a perilous, ice-littered sea, as the commandant was anxious to reach a record-setting latitude. On March 6, the Belgica became icebound. The crew did everything they could to prepare for a dark, below-freezing winter, but they were wracked with despair, suffering headaches, insomnia, dizziness, and later, madness—all vividly capture by Sancton. The sun returned on July 22, and by March 1899, they were able to escape the ice. With a cast of intriguing characters and drama galore, this history reads like fiction and will thrill fans of Endurance and In the Kingdom of Ice.
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984824-33-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered...
The incredible true story of three Jewish women who survived the Holocaust.
Priska, Rachel, and Anka were married Jewish women in their early 20s when the Nazis took control of Europe. Like millions of other Jews, they were forced to give up their normal lives, all of their belongings, and their homes. Shuttled into ghettos and then off to one of the most notorious camps, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, they suffered through the Nazis’ increasing atrocities. But these three women all held a secret: they were pregnant. They were moved from Auschwitz and ended up in Mauthausen, another notorious death camp. With facing the most horrible conditions imaginable, all three gave birth right before the Allies accepted Germany’s surrender. In this meticulously detailed account, Holden (Haatchi & Little B: The Inspiring True Story of One Boy and His Dog, 2014, etc.) compiles an enormous amount of information from interviews, letters, historical records, and personal visits to the sites where this story unfolded. The graphic history places readers in the moment and provides a sense of the enduring power of love that Priska, Rachel, and Anka had for their unborn children and for the husbands they so desperately hoped to see after the war. Even though it occurred more than 70 years ago, the story’s truth is so chillingly portrayed that it seems as if it could have happened recently. These three women and their infants survived in the face of death, and, Holden writes, “their babies went on to have babies of their own and create a second and then a third generation, all of whom continue to live their lives in defiance of Hitler’s plan to erase them from history and from memory.”
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered through at the hands of the Nazis.Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-237025-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2015
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
