000 04489n m a2200277 a 4500
001 041255
005 20231009192710.0
008 110510t2005----nyub----------000-u-eng-u
020 _a9781400041510
082 0 _a956.04 FIS
100 1 _aFisk, Robert
245 1 4 _aThe great war for civilisation
_b: the conquest of the Middle East
_c/ Robert Fisk
260 _aNew York
_b: Alfred A. Knopf
_c, c2005.
300 _axxii, 1107 p.
_b: maps
_c; 25 cm.
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [1061]-1067) and index.
505 0 0 _a"One of our brothers had a dream..." -- "They shoot Russians" -- The choirs of Kandahar -- The carpet-weavers -- The path to war -- "The whirlwind war" -- "War against war" and the fast train to paradise -- Drinking the poisoned chalice -- "Sentenced to suffer death" -- The first Holocaust -- Fifty thousand miles from Palestine -- The last colonial war -- The girl and the child and love -- "Anything to wipe out a devil..." -- Planet damnation -- Betrayal -- The land of graves -- The plague -- Now thrive the armourers... -- Even to kings, he comes... -- Why? -- The die is cast -- Atomic dog, annihilator. arsonist, anthrax, anguish and agamemnon -- Into the wilderness.
520 _aDuring the thirty years that award-winning journalist Robert Fisk has been reporting on the Middle East, he has covered every major event in the region, from the Algerian Civil War to the Iranian Revolution, from the American hostage crisis in Beirut (as one of only two Western journalists in the city at the time) to the Iran-Iraq War, from the Russian invasion of Afghanistan to Israel's invasions of Lebanon, from the Gulf War to the invasion and ongoing war in Iraq. Now he brings his knowledge, his firsthand experience and his intimate understanding of the Middle East to a book that addresses the full complexity of its political history and its current state of affairs. Passionate in his concerns about the region and relentless in his pursuit of the truth, Fisk has been able to enter the world of the Middle East and the lives of its people as few other journalists have. The result is a work of stunning reportage. His unblinking eyewitness testimony to the horrors of war places him squarely in the tradition of the great frontline reporters of the Second World War. His searing descriptions of lives mangled in the chaos of battle and of the battles themselves are at once dreadful and heartrending. This is also a book of lucid, incisive analysis. Reaching back into the long history of invasion, occupation and colonization in the region, Fisk sets forth this information in a way that makes clear how a history of injustice has condemned the Middle East to war. He lays open the role of the West in the seemingly endless strife and warfare in the region, traces the growth of the West's involvement and influence there over the past one hundred years, and outlines the West's record of support for some of the most ruthless leaders in the Middle East. He chronicles the ever-more-powerful military presence of the United States and tracks the consequent, increasingly virulent anti-Western and particularly anti-American sentiment among the region's Muslim populations. Fisk interweaves this history with his own vividly rendered experiences in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Algeria, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon on the front lines; behind the scenes; in the streets of cities and villages; and inside military headquarters, the hideouts of guerrillas, the homes of ordinary citizens. Here, too, are indelible portraits of Osama bin Laden, Ayatollah Khomeini and Yassir Arafat, among others all of whom he has met face-to-face revelatory in their apprehension of the individuals and the ideologies they represent. Finally, The Great War for Civilisation is the story of journalists in war: of their attempts to report the first, impartial drafts of history, to monitor the centers of power, to challenge authority (especially . . . when governments and politicians take us to war) and to battle an increasingly partisan worldwide media in their determination to report the truth.
650 _aMiddle East
_x-History, Military
_y-20th century
650 _aMiddle East
_x-History, Military
_y-21st century
650 4 _aWar and society
_z-Middle East
650 _aMiddle East
_x-Colonization
650 _aUnited States
_x-Relations
_z-Middle East
650 _aMiddle East
_x-Relations
_z-United States
710 2 _a
942 _cMO
999 _c248464
_d248464