An energetic and intimate popular history of a fraught land.
A personal, unconventional defense of the state of Israel.
In her first book, Israeli actor, producer, and singer Tishby provides a straightforward yet opinionated look at modern Israel that’s meant to rebut common criticisms and debunk common stereotypes. As a secular, liberal Israeli working in the entertainment industry, she has often found herself in the role of apologist for her homeland. This book is an outgrowth of those experiences, an attempt to educate her peers about Israel. Tishby begins with ancient history. “Israel sits on so much freaking history and archeology it’s unfathomable,” she writes in a characteristically conversational tone, continuing, “when you dig in Jerusalem…you just dig wherever you can, and you’re bound to find something old and priceless buried underground.” The author then moves on to the colonial-era Middle East and early Zionism, leading up to the horrors of World War II and the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948. Tishby discusses the conflicts that have plagued Israel since its founding, especially regarding the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Declaring herself both Zionist and pro-Palestinian, the author argues that the conflict is exacerbated by other Arab nations and poor Palestinian leadership. “The conflict,” she notes, “is not between the Palestinians and the Israelis. It’s between the entire Arab world and Israel.” Finally, Tishby describes the people and culture of Israel, pointing out the many ways Israel has contributed to the global community and what it has to offer to the Middle East going forward. Pointing fingers at the U.N. as well as the anti-Zionism movement and the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions initiative, Tishby encourages her fellow liberals to be educated and fair about their views of Israel. Drawing heavily on her personal experiences as well as on expansive research, the author provides an accessible defense of her people. Scholars will find plenty to debate, but the author’s candid viewpoint offers good food for thought.
An energetic and intimate popular history of a fraught land.Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982144-93-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A horde-pleaser, well-written and full of surprises.
“The Mongols swept across the globe as conquerors,” writes the appreciative pop anthropologist-historian Weatherford (The History of Money, 1997, etc.), “but also as civilization’s unrivaled cultural carriers.”
No business-secrets fluffery here, though Weatherford does credit Genghis Khan and company for seeking “not merely to conquer the world but to impose a global order based on free trade, a single international law, and a universal alphabet with which to write all the languages of the world.” Not that the world was necessarily appreciative: the Mongols were renowned for, well, intemperance in war and peace, even if Weatherford does go rather lightly on the atrocities-and-butchery front. Instead, he accentuates the positive changes the Mongols, led by a visionary Genghis Khan, brought to the vast territories they conquered, if ever so briefly: the use of carpets, noodles, tea, playing cards, lemons, carrots, fabrics, and even a few words, including the cheer hurray. (Oh, yes, and flame throwers, too.) Why, then, has history remembered Genghis and his comrades so ungenerously? Whereas Geoffrey Chaucer considered him “so excellent a lord in all things,” Genghis is a byword for all that is savage and terrible; the word “Mongol” figures, thanks to the pseudoscientific racism of the 19th century, as the root of “mongoloid,” a condition attributed to genetic throwbacks to seed sown by Mongol invaders during their decades of ravaging Europe. (Bad science, that, but Dr. Down’s son himself argued that imbeciles “derived from an earlier form of the Mongol stock and should be considered more ‘pre-human, rather than human.’ ”) Weatherford’s lively analysis restores the Mongols’ reputation, and it takes some wonderful learned detours—into, for instance, the history of the so-called Secret History of the Mongols, which the Nazis raced to translate in the hope that it would help them conquer Russia, as only the Mongols had succeeded in doing.
A horde-pleaser, well-written and full of surprises.Pub Date: March 2, 2004
ISBN: 0-609-61062-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.
A harrowing expedition to Antarctica, recounted by Departures senior features editor Sancton, who has reported from every continent on the planet.
On Aug. 16, 1897, the steam whaler Belgica set off from Belgium with young Adrien de Gerlache as commandant. Thus begins Sancton’s riveting history of exploration, ingenuity, and survival. The commandant’s inexperienced, often unruly crew, half non-Belgian, included scientists, a rookie engineer, and first mate Roald Amundsen, who would later become a celebrated polar explorer. After loading a half ton of explosive tonite, the ship set sail with 23 crew members and two cats. In Rio de Janeiro, they were joined by Dr. Frederick Cook, a young, shameless huckster who had accompanied Robert Peary as a surgeon and ethnologist on an expedition to northern Greenland. In Punta Arenas, four seamen were removed for insubordination, and rats snuck onboard. In Tierra del Fuego, the ship ran aground for a while. Sancton evokes a calm anxiety as he chronicles the ship’s journey south. On Jan. 19, 1898, near the South Shetland Islands, the crew spotted the first icebergs. Rough waves swept someone overboard. Days later, they saw Antarctica in the distance. Glory was “finally within reach.” The author describes the discovery and naming of new lands and the work of the scientists gathering specimens. The ship continued through a perilous, ice-littered sea, as the commandant was anxious to reach a record-setting latitude. On March 6, the Belgica became icebound. The crew did everything they could to prepare for a dark, below-freezing winter, but they were wracked with despair, suffering headaches, insomnia, dizziness, and later, madness—all vividly capture by Sancton. The sun returned on July 22, and by March 1899, they were able to escape the ice. With a cast of intriguing characters and drama galore, this history reads like fiction and will thrill fans of Endurance and In the Kingdom of Ice.
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984824-33-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
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