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The Great War For Civilisation
The Conquest Of The Middle East
by Robert Fisk


8.5

based on 16 reviews
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based on 2 votes
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Official Publisher Site

The veteran journalist offers a massive account of modern Middle East history, which is illustrated by his first-hand observances in the region over the past three decades.

Knopf, 1136 pages
11/08/2005
$40.00

ISBN: 1400041511

Nonfiction
Current Events & Politics
History

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Publishers Weekly

Combining a novelist's talent for atmosphere with a scholar's grasp of historical sweep, foreign correspondent Fisk has written one of the most dense and compelling accounts of recent Middle Eastern history yet.

The Independent Phillip Knightley

As he admits, his work, especially in this powerfully-written book, is filled with accounts of horror, pain and injustice. His triumph is that he has turned a slightly dubious and over-romanticised craft into a honorable vocation.

The Independent Neal Ascherson

He writes with a marvellous resource of image and language. His investigative reporting is lethally painstaking

The Observer Rebecca Seal

So much more than a modern history of the Middle East.

Washington Post Stephen Humphreys

A book of unquestionable importance, given Fisk's unmatched experience of war and its impact in the contemporary Middle East and his capacity to convey that experience in concrete, passionate language.

Library Journal Ethan P. Pullman

In each well-annotated and provocative chapter, Fisk's impartial reports of torture, executions, political manipulations, and human loss are not mere reportage but instead aim to arouse us from apathy and challenge us to hold those in authority responsible. [1 Nov 2005, p.100]

Christian Science Monitor Michael B. Farrell

The book is at its best when Fisk takes us through the battlefields from which he has reported. We hear the bullets, feel the desert heat. The point of Fisk's history lessons is evident. He's boldly, scathingly against this current battle in the Middle East. But what he doesn't leave us with is his vision for a better future.

Salon Gary Kamiya

Fisk excels at pointing out the lies and sins of the powerful, but he offers few suggestions of his own: His moral outrage can make the perfect the enemy of the good. He is not a consistent political thinker; his anger leads him to embrace positions that are problematic and even self-contradictory. Yet despite its flaws, The Great War for Civilisation is a magisterial achievement.

San Francisco Chronicle John Freeman

The great benefit of hearing this history from Fisk is that he was there, on the frontlines for almost every single major event.

The Nation Augustus Richard Norton

I must admit that while reading this massive, unruly book I imagined Fisk emptying all his drawers on the bed. The book would have benefited greatly from a strong-willed editor. It is not just that the prose is sometimes flabby but that anecdotes and jabs are recycled, sometimes within the same chapter.

Boston Globe Siddhartha Deb

For all his awareness of the past, he is an untidy thinker who seems to attribute colonialism to no more than the bad intentions of a few key players. Economics, culture, politics, ideas, or technology plays no role in explaining why the Western world should have suddenly become so interested in establishing colonial mandates over the sands of Arabia.

The New York Times Book Review Geoffrey Wheatcroft

Fisk's brand of reporting-with-attitude has obvious dangers. His ungovernable anger may do his heart credit, but it does not make for satisfactory history...Fisk's condemnations, and his tone of voice, are so sweeping as to damage his own case.

The Economist

The extent to which Arabs have been the authors of their own misfortune is not given adequate consideration in this dogged, powerful and often infuriating polemic against the West.

The Guardian Oliver Miles

Vigilant editing and ruthless pruning could perhaps have made two or three good short books out of this one.

The Spectator Richard Beeston

The most obvious reflection is that [the book] is far too big and unwieldy. Were it dropped from one of Fisk’s hated US bombers it would flatten an entire Afghan village.

The New York Times Ethan Bronner

Mr. Fisk seems to have decided that even striving for objectivity is silly...His many legitimate points are sometimes warped by his perspective.

The average user rating for this book is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

John E gave it a10:
This is an amazing book and an extremely interesting read. 30 years of front line reporting in the middle east, Fisk is a legend. He is not afraid to write the truth. Journalists from papers reviewing above have a lot to answer for, you have let us all down with your propaganda! Read this book and learn about what's really going on in this part of the world and what has caused the current debacle.

Mike C. gave it a7:
Well written, with a wealth of interesting first hand reporting of the past 30 years in the Middle East. But Mr. Fisk's righteous indignation at, really, pretty much everything in the Middle East eventually spoils this book. Fisk is indignant at Saddam Hussein ----- and at his removal. He is indignant at the Taliban ---- and at those Afghanis who betrayed the Taliban for US dollars. He is indignant at Israel, at Syria, at the Palestinians, the United States, Britain, the United Nations ----- at everyone really. Perhaps he means this to be evenhandedness. Unfortunately, in the end his attitude comes across as mere peevishness.

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The Great War For Civilisation The Conquest Of The Middle East by Robert Fisk

The Great War For Civilisation
The Conquest Of The Middle East
by Robert Fisk