National Bestseller Winner of the National Book Award Updated with a New Chapter Author of The World Is Flat and That Used to Be Us One of the most thought-provoking books ever written about the Middle East, From Beirut to Jerusalem remains vital to our understanding of this complex and volatile region of the world. Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman drew upon his ten years of experience reporting from Lebanon and Israel to write this now-classic work of journalism. Rich with anecdote, history, analysis, and autobiography, From Beirut to Jerusalem will continue to shape how we see the Middle East for many years to come.

"Based on two decades of reporting, NBC's chief foreign correspondent's riveting story of the Middle East revolutions, the Arab Spring, war, and terrorism seen up-close--sometimes dangerously so. When he was just twenty-three, a recent graduate of Stanford University, Richard Engel set off to Cairo with $2,000 and dreams of being a reporter. Shortly thereafter he was working freelance for Arab news sources and got a call that a busload of Italian tourists were massacred at a Cairo museum. This is his first view of the carnage these years would pile on. Over two decades Engel has been under fire, blown out of hotel beds, taken hostage. He has watched Mubarak and Morsi in Egypt arrested and condemned, reported from Jerusalem, been through the Lebanese war, covered the whole shooting match in Iraq, interviewed Libyan rebels who toppled Gaddafi, reported from Syria as Al-Qaeda stepped in, was kidnapped in the Syrian crosscurrents of fighting. He goes into Afghanistan with the Taliban and to Iraq with ISIS. In the page-turning And Then All Hell Broke Loose, he shares his adventure tale. Engel takes chances, though not reckless ones, keeps a level head and a sense of humor, as well as a grasp of history in the making. Reporting as NBC's Chief-Foreign Correspondent, he reveals his unparalleled access to the major figures, the gritty soldiers, and the helpless victims in the Middle East during this watershed time. We can experience the unforgettable suffering and despair of the local populations. Engel's vivid description is intimate and personal. Importantly, it is a succinct and authoritative account of the ever-changing currents in that dangerous land"--

It was one small hilltop in a small, unnamed war in the late 1990s, but it would send out ripples still felt worldwide today. The hill, in Lebanon, was called the Pumpkin; 'flowers' was the military code word for casualties. Award-winning writer Matti Friedman re-creates the harrowing, otherworldly experiences of a band of young men, plucked by conscription from westernised boyhoods, and charged with holding this remote outpost - a pointless task that changed them forever and foreshadowed the unwinnable conflicts the United States would soon confront in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Part memoir, part reportage, part elegy for lost youth, this powerful narrative captures the birth of today's chaotic Middle East and the rise of a 21st century type of war in which there is never a clear victor, and innocence is not the only casualty. Raw and beautifully rendered, Pumpkin flowers will take its place among classic war narratives by George Orwell, Philip Caputo, Vasily Grossman and Micahel Herr. It is an unflinching look at the way we conduct war today 'Throughout, the author grapples with questions regarding both Israeli aggression and the nature of the state's survival. In a chilling final section, he chronicles his travels as a Canadian tourist to his former combat zone in Lebanon, encountering friendly residents in thrall to Hezbollah and seething with anti-Semitism. A haunting yet wry tale of young people at war, cursed by political forces beyond their control, that can stand alongside the best narrative nonfiction coming out of Afghanistan and Iraq.' Kirkus Review ' Pumpkinflowers is a beautifully written insight into the day-to-day realities of what it's like being a soldier and the often boring reality of war. No former soldier who has spent hours manning guard-posts during his military service could remain indifferent to such lines as "sometimes you took over one of the guard-posts, checked your watch an hour later, and found that five minutes had passed". Friedman's book is... a powerful portrait of men in war.' - Ahron Bregman. Read the full review in the Jewish Chronicle

It was early one morning in October 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon. Terrorists drove a truck loaded with 12,000 pounds of explosives into the atrium of a building housing the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit. The explosives were detonated, razing the four-story steel and concrete building, killing 241 Americans, and injuring many more. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. pulled its forces out of Beruit. Within months of the attack, author Eric Hammel was granted an historic opportunity to interview survivors of the bombing and those who came to their rescue. This book is their story and captures the Marines' mission in Lebanon, including largely unreported battles fought in and around Beirut. Using recollections from the nearly 200 people interviewed, the book recounts in vivid detail the terrorist attack on unit headquarters, and how the survivors came out alive.

Item shows wear on cover. Pages are a bit yellowed but there are NO markings or highlighting.

'The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr' combines an account of a Lebanese personality with a penetrating analysis of the historical and religious contours of Lebanon. His life is part of the national epic with elements of Christian faith and Maronite sophistication, interconfessional modes of partnership, and violence tearing apart the fabric of social and economic life. Integral to the narrative and incisively unconventional interpretation is the complex politics of Lebanon intermixed with the war that erupted in 1975." "Personal testimonies from Lebanese residents and conversations with others outside Lebanon, who knew Abu-Arz, in addition to interviews with Israelis acquainted with him, provide a dimension of authenticity to the portrait drawn of this remarkable man. Etienne Sakr, with a steadfast ideological commitment to a non-Arab Lebanese identity and political independence, fought the Syrian and Palestinian intruders, and with his Guardians of the Cedars Party cooperated with Israel. While ineluctably embroiled in the inter-Christian power struggles, Abu-Arz acquired a reputation as the conscience of Lebanon, but without achieving a position of power ascendancy. But he was present in the Lebanese Forces decision-making councils, and his own revelatory evidence contributes to an understanding of the agony and divisiveness that characterized the Christian leadership in the turmoil of war. His moral stance was clear and his political judgment filled with foresight, but hispatriots often preferred to ignore his message and marginalize his role.