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Title: The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
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Manufacturer: Vintage
List Price: $20.00
Our Price: $11.69
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| Customer Reviews: |
| The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Vintage Long read |
Normally it takes me maybe four or five hours to finish a whole book. With this one, I would read for four hours and discover I had read maybe 50 pages.
There is a lot of information in here. Fisk often rambles on and on, and he could have seriously used an editor, but when he writes from his perspective about something interesting, it is really interesting. He doesn't bother being polite or diplomatic about something. He is equally as hard and fair on the Iraqis, Iranians, Americans, Israelis, Palestinians, Soviets and British as he is on every subject. And in a lot of cases it is really interesting to read the different perspectives of certain events.
In any event this is a good read if you are interested in the Middle East. Robert Fisk is certainly opinionated. But anyone growing up post-911 has built up their own fair share of opinions and biases towards this part of the world. There is a certain kind of intrinsic value in reading books like this; books which provide different perspectives than the ones we hold. |
| The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Vintage Brilliant but lengthy treatise on how the Middle East "situation" came to be |
"The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East" is journalist Robert Fisk's very personal treatise on how the present Middle East "situation" has come about.
At a over 1300 pages this book is certainly exhaustive as Fisk covers just about every aspect of Middle East history over the last 100 years -and hammers home his points at length. Not surprisingly, the USA, UK, and Israel come in for his most ferocious criticism and one begins to feel a bit frustrated with Fisk as he criticises the UK and USA when they do act AND when they don't act - leaving one thinking: well what exactly are they supposed to do?
The highlights of the book are his meetings with Osama Bin Laden, his experiences during the Iran-Iraq war, and his first-hand account of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. These occur in the first half of the book but from then on it becomes rather heavy going - though still worthwhile.
This book should be read by all students of the Middle East. |
| The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Vintage Get this book |
| It took me a while to read this book, and whoever gets it better understand it's a daunting book to read. It's all worthwhile at the end, as you will get a history lesson from someone that lived threw most of the stories told in this book. |
| The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Vintage The Great War for Civilisation |
| I devoted at least 7 months of 2006 to reading this huge work. It is without doubt the most depressing book I have read. The unrelenting description of man's inhumanity to man does not make for happy reading. The subject matter almost dictated that this book needed to be read through to its conclusion, however, the bleak, nihilistic content did not make for happy bedtimes. It only gets 3 stars from me because Mr Fisk does not give alternatives to his description of these shocking events. I would hope things need not be so bleak, but Mr Fisk gives me no hope that the worst wont happen as a matter of course. |
| The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Vintage Sorry, I have not seen the book yet, two months after I purchaset it |
Sir,
It was in November 12th 2007 when I made my purchase, and I received your response where the book was promised to come in December 26th 2007. Now, more than couple of weeks after the deadline, there are no signs of the book yet.
What shall I do?
Valde Mikkonen |
| The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Vintage Product Description |
| A sweeping and dramatic history of the last half century of conflict in the Middle East from an award-winning journalist who has covered the region for over thirty years, The Great War for Civilisation unflinchingly chronicles the tragedy of the region from the Algerian Civil War to the Iranian Revolution; from the American hostage crisis in Beirut to the Iran-Iraq War; from the 1991 Gulf War to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. A book of searing drama as well as lucid, incisive analysis, The Great War for Civilisation is a work of major importance for today's world. |
