Book cover of The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul by Isabel Kershner
History

The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel’s Battle for Its Inner Soul

An urgent, wide-ranging portrait of the divisions among Israelis today, and the external threats to their country, at a critical juncture in its history. • Through moving narratives and on-the-ground reporting, a veteran New York Times correspondent who has spent decades working in Israel reveals what holds the country together. […Learn More]

Book cover of Jerusalem Falls: Seven Centuries of War and Peace by John Hosler
Asia

Jerusalem Falls: Seven Centuries of War and Peace

The first full account of the medieval struggle for Jerusalem, from the seventh to the thirteenth century

The history of Jerusalem is one of conflict, faith, and empire. Few cities have been attacked as often and as savagely. This was no less true in the Middle Ages. From the Persian sack in 614 through the bloody First Crusade and beyond, Jerusalem changed hands countless times. […Learn More]

Book cover of The Good Assassin: How a Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down the Butcher of Latvia by Stephan Talty
Americas

The Good Assassin: How a Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down the Butcher of Latvia

The untold story of an Israeli spy’s epic journey to bring the notorious Butcher of Latvia to justice—a case that altered the fates of all ex-Nazis.

Before World War II, Herbert Cukurs was a famous figure in his small Latvian city, the “Charles Lindbergh of his country”. But he was soon better known as the Butcher of Latvia, a man who murdered some thirty thousand Jews […Learn More]

Book cover of The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine by Ben Ehrenreich
History

The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine

From an award-winning journalist, a brave and necessary immersion into the everyday struggles of Palestinian life 

Over the past three years, American writer Ben Ehrenreich has been traveling to and living in the West Bank, staying with Palestinian families in its largest cities and its smallest villages. Along the way he has written major stories for American outlets, including a remarkable New York Times Magazine cover story […Learn More]

Book cover of Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel by Dan Ephron
Biography & Autobiography

Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel 

A riveting story about the murder that changed a nation: the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin remains the single most consequential event in Israel’s recent history, and one that fundamentally altered the trajectory for both Israel and the Palestinians. Killing a King relates the parallel stories of Rabin and his stalker, Yigal Amir, over the two years leading up to the assassination, as one of them planned political deals he hoped would lead to peace, and the other plotted murder. […Learn More]

Book cover of Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands by Dan Jones
Europe

Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands

A major new history of the Crusades with an unprecedented wide scope, told in a tableau of portraits of people on all sides of the wars, from the author of Powers and Thrones.

For more than one thousand years, Christians and Muslims lived side by side, sometimes at peace and sometimes at war. When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. […Learn More]

Book cover of Dear Palestine: a Social History of the 1948 War by Shay Hazkani
History

Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War

In 1948, a war broke out that would result in Israeli independence and the erasure of Arab Palestine. Over twenty months, thousands of Jews and Arabs came from all over the world to join those already on the ground to fight in the ranks of the Israel Defense Forces and the Arab Liberation Army. With this book, the young men and women who made up these armies come to life through their letters home, writing about everything from daily life to nationalism, colonialism, race, and the character of their enemies. […Learn More]

History

Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations

The first definitive history of the Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF’s targeted killing programs, hailed by The New York Times as “an exceptional work, a humane book about an incendiary subject.”
The Talmud says: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel’s DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood in 1948, protecting the nation from harm has been the responsibility of its intelligence community and armed services, and there is one weapon in their vast arsenal that they have relied upon to thwart the most serious threats: Targeted assassinations have been used countless times, on enemies large and small, sometimes in response to attacks against the Israeli people and sometimes preemptively. […Learn More]

History

The Hundred Year War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917 – 2017

Renowned scholar and historian Professor Khalidi draws on primary sources to give an intensely personal account of a century of conflict in Palestine.

This is not a happy story. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 promised the Jews a homeland where the Palestinians already lived. The 1917 capture of Jerusalem by British forces and the formalisation of British colonial power over what became Mandatory Palestine under the terms of the treaty of Versailles. […Learn More]