From Beirut to Jerusalem

from berrypuma

This is an excellent read. The original edition was written in the 80s but reading it if feels like it could have been written yesterday. It contains great insights into the root causes of the issues that the world is facing in the middle east today. Thomas Friedman manages to be very objective a...

from PhoebeReading

I read this during my trip to (surprise!) Israel. Friedman's easy, anecdotal style is a treat, really easy to grasp considering the depth and breadth of the book. This provided a great context for my trip, especially considering its age; understandably, he touches on many issues that my Birthrigh...

from SGTCat

This was a really good book. The first section, about Lebanon and Israel's involvement in Beirut, is really excellent. The second half, about Jerusalem, is ok, but Friedman seemed to lose some of his steam there. It's as if the subject of the Israel-Palestinian conflict doesn't interest him as mu...

from ejfertig

Though this book is quite old at this point, it's amazingly up to date in the realities of the Arab/Israeli conflict. It's amazing how much he predicts several of the situations being observed now. Thomas Friedman really gets the Middle East in a way I haven't seen from any other American.

from SeriousGrace

This book follows a chronology of the Middle East that begins in 1882 and ends in 1988. It could be seen as a love story, a biography about a region Friedman knows intimately and loves dearly despite its many contradictions. In spite of the ever-roiling Arab-Israeli conflict Friedman is right in ...