The Great War for Civilisation
The Conquest of the Middle East
by Robert Fisk · first published 2005
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A personal account of the modern Middle East by a long-serving correspondent, offering vivid, dense detail on the region's conflicts and suffering and providing historical context.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
During the thirty years that award-winning journalist Robert Fisk has been reporting on the Middle East, he has covered every major event in the region, from the Algerian Civil War to the Iranian Revolution, from the American hostage crisis in Beirut (as one of only two Western journalists in the city at the time) to the Iran-Iraq War, from the Russian invasion of Afghanistan to Israel’s invasions of Lebanon, from the Gulf War to the invasion and ongoing war in Iraq. Now he brings his knowledge, his firsthand experience and his intimate understanding of the Middle East to a book that addresses
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…enjoy the insanity of the situation. I highly recommend the books, though I don't exactly have a weak stomach, and many parts were quite difficult for me. It reminded me quite a bit of Robert Fisk's The Great War for Civilisation, which was also extremely long and dense with suffering.
on “George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)” ↗…the Soviets by quite a wide margin. The USSR was just one more interloper in a long line of interlopers. They weren't the first, and clearly they weren't the last. A good book on this subject is "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East" by Robert Fisk. Agree or disagree with his stance (particularly re: Israel), but his understanding of the history and context of the Middle East cannot be ignored. tl;dr…
on “Afghanistan in the 1950s and 60s” ↗…attitudes towards Israel. I don't know enough about Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran supposedly building nuclear weapons to comment, so I won't. For those interested, I highly recommend reading Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East"[0]. The author was in Iran during the revolution which overthrew the Shah and offers a fascinating perspective into the Iranian people. The rest of the book is proving…
on “Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran” ↗Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East" is strongly recommended - a very personal account, and all the better for it.
on “James Gosling: Some more comments about the Oracle Java lawsuit” ↗…different and complex societies outside-the-fold of the Western world can be, and how ancient many of their traditions and way of life are. It also reminded me that real adventure necessitates risk. The Great War for Civilisation - Robert Fisk Taught me that whatever I know about foreign conflict, I know nothing about foreign conflict. The Best and the Brightest - David Halberstam Provides a template for how the US government…
on “Ask HN: What book(s) changed your life?” ↗Disputed by who? “Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken”[1] [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone I also recommend the book “The Great War for Civilisation” by Robert Fisk
on “US troop deaths during Iran war exceed Pentagon count by at least four” ↗…he roared. "Legalise the lot. It will be the end of the drug barons. They'll go broke and kill each other. But of course the world will never accept that. So we'll go on fighting a losing war." -- The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk
on “Anonymous Cancels Operation Cartel as Los Zetas Track Hacktivists” ↗Just finished: "The Great War for Civilisation" - Robert Fisk "Life on the Mississippi" - Mark Twain "3 Commando Brigade" - Ewen Southby-Tailyour "Anathem" - Neal Stephenson
on “What are you reading?” ↗…historians has long since written the last stroke on the event? I don’t think so. There are likely still findings to be made. Robert Fisk would occasionally write on this exact topic. In his book The Great War for Civilisation he describes finding human remains from a massacre of Armenians in Syria. The event was described to him by an elderly survivor and Fisk later sought out the location. The below link is an example and…
on “The Armenian Genocide (1915-16): In Depth” ↗book is called The Great War for Civilisation after the inscription on the back of my father's World War I medal. After WWI the British and French created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and the Middle East. I've spent my entire professional…
on “Forty Years of 'Civilisation' ” ↗