The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood by Rashid Khalidi - 2006.

Boston, MA Beacon Press, 2006. Hardcover First Ed; First Printing indicated. Shows ORANGE HI-LIGHTING on ten pages in the text. Else, this First Ed; First Printing indicated book is Very Near Fine in Very Near Fine DJ: Book shows only a mild bump at the lower corner of the front panel; else flawless; binding square and secure DJ shows the mildest rubbing; else flawless; price unclipped. But for the hi-lighting, Virtually 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 281pp. Hardback with DJ. Khalidi's book, which is amazingly middle of the road, is certainly somewhat critical of both sides in a conflict but highly informative. Given that the topic itself is so over heated even an evenhanded book such as this will receive from one group or another being discussed the typical angry rants: it would be unfortunate if any reader was dissuaded from reading by that type of response. Rather it is understandable that anger arises in the context of this topic. This in itself signals the desperate need for a book like this...a brave and noble attempt to balance and assess histories of people who for the most part are incapable of doing that themselves. Khalidi's is a book about two histories, intertwined to the point of suffocation and anhilation. Yet, such responses are symptoms of the injury and wounds that don't heal. And it is because each side refuses the Other, the experience of the Other, and the arguments of the Other, that such a book or books are desperately needed. Khalidi is an eminent scholar and a highly respected one. It is unlikely that any one can do better than he does in covering the topics he covers with considerable skill and sensitivity. This is a must read, especially for those who most violently refuse. One might say that Khalidi is attempting to de-toxify one of the most historically toxic problems in the Middle East. No less important, he is a major, highly nuanced and skilled historian with a strong ethnographic capability, the book is also fascinating for those of us who wish to know more about the land of Palestine before it became so intensely impacted with conflict.