WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST

In his 40 as a journalist, Hampton says, there has not been a single week without some story from the Middle East. Here, he covers the 1970 civil war known as Black September and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. A superb prologue traces the history of the region from biblical times to the origins of the state of Israel, the Six-Day War in 1967 and on to the modern-day rise in hijackings, kidnappings and terrorist attacks. This is a U.P.I. correspondent’s story of his own experience as a reporter in Jordan and Israel in a five-year span that included two wars, three years apart. The first-person reportage makes the history immediate and accessible, a personal lens with which to view a complicated tale. Maps, wartime photographs with informative captions and clear, lively writing make this the best volume yet for readers wanting to learn about this region that affects the whole world. A good match with Ibtisam Barakat’s Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood (2007). (bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10+)