The Spymaster of Baghdad: A True Story of Bravery, Family and Patriotism in the Battle Against ISIS by Margaret Coker
Few books on the recent history of Iraq focus on Iraqis themselves, at least those published in the West.
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Category: Book Reviews
The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage and Justice by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
There is a clip that occasionally resurfaces on social media of a young Kurdish sniper. The unidentified woman is looking through her rifle’s scope and takes a shot, only to have a round fired from the Islamic State impact inches from her head.
MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman by Ben Hubbard
A 384-page book might seem a bit much for the political biography of a man who’s just turned 34 – particularly when you consider that the subject has only been close to the nerve centre of Saudi Arabian power for just half a decade.
Erdogan’s Empire: Turkey and the Politics of the Middle East by Soner Cagaptay
Soner Cagaptay, a leading researcher of contemporary Turkey at the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy, has written a book of wide scope about Turkish foreign policy over the past two decades.
The Three Best Books on Antisemitism, Fathom, June 2021
There are so many books about antisemitism that it seems foolhardy to try to summarise the full scope of literature on the subject, never mind choosing just three to recommend.
Putin’s War in Syria. Russian Foreign Policy and the Price of America’s Absence by Anna Borshchevskaya
After nearly a decade of conflict, it appears that efforts are underway, or at least beginning to get underway, to re-normalize relations with Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria.
Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Controversial City by Andrew Lawler
The rabbinic tradition speaks of a Jerusalem above and a Jerusalem below. It imagines the earthbound city as a reflection of a heavenly one—the latter perfect and the former aspiring to perfection.