Enemies and Neighbors
Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017
Nonfiction, History, Middle East, Israel, Modern, 20th Century
| Author: | Ian Black | ISBN: | 9780802188793 |
| Publisher: | Grove Atlantic | Publication: | November 7, 2017 |
| Imprint: | Atlantic Monthly Press | Language: | English |
| Author: | Ian Black |
| ISBN: | 9780802188793 |
| Publisher: | Grove Atlantic |
| Publication: | November 7, 2017 |
| Imprint: | Atlantic Monthly Press |
| Language: | English |
Sebastian Faulks’s pick for the Guardian’s best books of 2017, a Financial Times and Economist best book of 2017 in politics, and a Sunday Times (UK) best book of 2017. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice pick.
Enemies and Neighbors is a big, textured, and, crucially, balanced account of over 100 years of the Israel-Palestine conflict, published on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration (the famous pledge made by the British government on Nov. 2, 1917 expressing sympathy for a national Jewish home in Palestine). 2017 also marks the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War in June 1967, during which Israel seized its current borders.
Ian Black, currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at LSE’s Middle East Centre, spent over 25 years covering the Middle East at the Guardian (most recently as Middle East editor) and is a respected authority on Israel-Palestine and Middle Eastern affairs. In 2010, Black was awarded a Peace through Media Award by the International Council for Press and Broadcasting for his work at the Guardian. He appears regularly on BBC TV/radio and Al-Jazeera and has also written for the Washington Post, the Economist, and other outlets.
The Balfour Declaration anniversary is the perfect moment to look back and will be useful for media purposes. Black has already reported on President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas' recent call for legal action against Britain for the 100-year-old declaration.
Much of the existing literature on the Israel-Palestine conflict focuses on the era post-Israeli independence (starting in 1948), has a clear bias, and/or comes at the subject from an academic angle. This is a major, engagingly written trade history covering the entire arc of the conflict up to the present (Black took a final reporting trip to Jerusalem in February 2017 as the Trump administration began to set out its policy on Israel-Palestine), and Black has done an extraordinary job of telling it from both sides.
Black authoritatively weaves together the narrative from an impressive variety of sources, including declassified official documents, contemporary memoirs and letters, press clippings, and oral histories, as well as his own extensive on-the-ground reporting and original interviews. Enemies and Neighbors is the big-picture counterpart to Sandy Tolan's The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (which is now a decade old); through each new set of events/conflict, Black maintains a compelling human element.
Black has interviewed Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Bashar al-Assad, among others.
Black has a robust social media presence, including over 22k followers on Twitter (@ian_black), which is largely focused on Middle Eastern news/history.
Penguin UK is publishing Enemies and Neighbors simultaneously as a lead nonfiction title.
Black was the coauthor with Benny Morris of the acclaimed Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services, published by Grove in 1991 and which netted well over 20,000 copies. We are planning to reissue Israel’s Secret Wars around the pub of Enemies and Neighbors.
After studying history at Cambridge and the London School of Economics and Arabic at the School of Oriental and African studies, Black won the Laurence Stern Award to work at the Washington Post.
Sebastian Faulks’s pick for the Guardian’s best books of 2017, a Financial Times and Economist best book of 2017 in politics, and a Sunday Times (UK) best book of 2017. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice pick.
Enemies and Neighbors is a big, textured, and, crucially, balanced account of over 100 years of the Israel-Palestine conflict, published on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration (the famous pledge made by the British government on Nov. 2, 1917 expressing sympathy for a national Jewish home in Palestine). 2017 also marks the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War in June 1967, during which Israel seized its current borders.
Ian Black, currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at LSE’s Middle East Centre, spent over 25 years covering the Middle East at the Guardian (most recently as Middle East editor) and is a respected authority on Israel-Palestine and Middle Eastern affairs. In 2010, Black was awarded a Peace through Media Award by the International Council for Press and Broadcasting for his work at the Guardian. He appears regularly on BBC TV/radio and Al-Jazeera and has also written for the Washington Post, the Economist, and other outlets.
The Balfour Declaration anniversary is the perfect moment to look back and will be useful for media purposes. Black has already reported on President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas' recent call for legal action against Britain for the 100-year-old declaration.
Much of the existing literature on the Israel-Palestine conflict focuses on the era post-Israeli independence (starting in 1948), has a clear bias, and/or comes at the subject from an academic angle. This is a major, engagingly written trade history covering the entire arc of the conflict up to the present (Black took a final reporting trip to Jerusalem in February 2017 as the Trump administration began to set out its policy on Israel-Palestine), and Black has done an extraordinary job of telling it from both sides.
Black authoritatively weaves together the narrative from an impressive variety of sources, including declassified official documents, contemporary memoirs and letters, press clippings, and oral histories, as well as his own extensive on-the-ground reporting and original interviews. Enemies and Neighbors is the big-picture counterpart to Sandy Tolan's The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (which is now a decade old); through each new set of events/conflict, Black maintains a compelling human element.
Black has interviewed Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Bashar al-Assad, among others.
Black has a robust social media presence, including over 22k followers on Twitter (@ian_black), which is largely focused on Middle Eastern news/history.
Penguin UK is publishing Enemies and Neighbors simultaneously as a lead nonfiction title.
Black was the coauthor with Benny Morris of the acclaimed Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services, published by Grove in 1991 and which netted well over 20,000 copies. We are planning to reissue Israel’s Secret Wars around the pub of Enemies and Neighbors.
After studying history at Cambridge and the London School of Economics and Arabic at the School of Oriental and African studies, Black won the Laurence Stern Award to work at the Washington Post.
