A Middle East Reader: Selected Essays on the Middle East from NY Review of Books

There are ten articles in this collection. They The Thief of Baghdad by Edward Mortimer. This is Mortimer's review of the following four Saddam A Biography by Fuad Matar; Iraqi Power and US Security in the Middle East by Stephen S. Pelletiere, Douglas V. Johnson II and Leif R Rosenberger; Republic of The Politics of Modern Iraq by Samir al-Khalil; and Human Rights in Iraq by Middle East Watch. The Shi'a by Bernard Lewis How Assad Has Won by Scott MacLeod The Tragedy of Victory by Arthur Hertzberg The Palestinian Refugees by Robert I Friedman The Rise of the Ultra-Orthodox by Avishai Margalit On Gaza Beach by Ari Shavit The Way to War by Michael Massing The Last Forty-Eight Hours by Andrew Whitley Iraq and Its Future by Samir Al-Khalil Along with these ten articles is a end section containing Note on the Contributors. The book is also laced with wonderful drawings by David Levine, who frequently provides portraits for the NYRB The cover has some light shelf wear but the text is completely clean--no writing or markings of any kind that I can see. The book measures 5" by 7 1/2" and has 191 pages followed by short bios on the authors of the articles. From the back "This collection of essays, all published in The New York Review of Books...provides fresh, unexpected insights into the explosive politics in the Middle East and the role taken by the United States. The essays trace th backgrounds, politics and rise to power of...dictators (including Sddam Hussein of Iraq)...They explain the beliefs and influences of religious fundamentalist...Other essays provide a fresh view of the difficulties in reaching a lasting Middle East peace. They discuss the life of the Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East as well as an Israeli prison camp in the Gaza strip."