Synopses & Reviews
Whether filtered through the news, the film industry, or the classroom, the Arab-Israeli conflict has become a pervasive--and often misinterpreted--subject on our contemporary cultural landscape. In this compelling text, David W. Lesch, a widely respected scholar and commentator on modern Middle Eastern politics, presents the most balanced and accessible account of the conflict to date.
The Arab-Israeli Conflict puts forth a variety of perspectives--along with concise and informative analyses--to enable and encourage students to form their own educated opinions about complex and controversial issues.
Challenging yet not overwhelming, this appealingly slim volume focuses on key information, but also incorporates pedagogical features that help to enhance and expand students' understanding of the subject:
* An extensive collection of relevant primary documents
* Sidebars highlighting social and cultural history
* A glossary of terms
* A chronology for quick reference
* Comprehensive illustrations, including 17 maps and 17 photos
About the Author
David W. Lesch is Professor of Middle East History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. His books include
The Middle East and the United States: A Historical and Political Reassessment, Fourth Edition (2007);
The New Lion of Damascus: Bashar al-Asad and Modern Syria (2005); the two-volume work
History in Dispute: The Middle East Since World War II, Volumes 14 and 15 (2003);
1979: The Year That Shaped the Modern Middle East (2001);
Syria and the United States: Eisenhower's Cold War in the Middle East (1992); and
The History of the United States in the Middle East (forthcoming).
Table of Contents
Preface
Note on the Text
List of Maps and Photographs
1. The Intellectual and Physical Setting
2. Competing Ideologies
3. The Convergence
4. The Palestine Mandate
5. Independence and al-Nakba
6. Cold Wars and the Middle East Matrix
7. The Earthquake
8. The Road to 1979
9. Mutual Fallouts: Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
10. A Decade of Hope
11. Breakdown ...
12. ... and Reconstruction?
Glossary
Chronology
For Further Reading
Index