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Amazon.co.uk Reviews
Twenty-five years after first setting foot on Lebanese soil, award-winning journalist Robert Fisk has revised his brilliant study of this troubled country, Pity the Nation, for a third edition, to include the years since its initial publication in 1990. Artificially created as a country by the French in 1920, Lebanon's revenge was to "welcome all her invaders and then kiss them to death". Since arriving during the 1976 Muslim-Maronite civil war, Fisk has travelled its length to seek out, as well as provide, eye-witness account of combat and atrocity. The book's main pre-occupation is the Israeli invasion of the early 1980s and its terrible aftermath, including the appalling massacre of Palestinians at the Shabra and Chatila camps. Banned in Lebanon itself, the first edition of Pity the Nation ended with close friend and colleague Terry Anderson still being held by Islamic Jihad. Inevitably, Anderson's release in 1991, along with other Western hostages such as Terry Waite and John McCarthy, emotionally informs the bulk of the new material, which also considers the Gulf War, Islamic resurgence, the collapse of the Oslo peace agreement and the bloody 1996 Qana massacre in a UN refugee compound by Israeli forces, to which Fisk bears terrible witness. He sees Yasser Arafat make the transmission from "terrorist to superstatesman to superterrorist", but by the end of this exhaustive testimony, virtually the last Western journalist left in West Beirut, he admits, "I still fear the monsters". And then Ariel Sharon is elected prime minister of Israel in February 2001.
Fisk, formerly of The Times and now Middle East correspondent for The Independent, writes as combatively as the events he so vividly describes. With a fastidious eye for detail, he rails against day-tripping reporters who betray truth with their clichés and loose language, constantly defending language against false appropriation: "terrorism", for example, wielded by one side to describe acts committed against them, deprives the term of any objective purpose and thus legitimises reprisal. He makes reparation with this unique and passionate analysis, still angry after all these years, which remains the most relentless and convincing account yet of the bloodiest quarter-century in Lebanon's history. --David Vincent
Product Description
Pity the Nation ranks among the classic accounts of war in our time, both as historical document and as an eyewitness testament to human savagery. Written by one of Britain's foremost journalists, this remarkable book combines political analysis and war reporting in an unprecedented way: it is an epic account of the Lebanon conflict by an author who has personally witnessed the carnage of Beirut for over a decade. Fisk's book recounts the details of a terrible war but it also tells a story of betrayal and illusion, of Western blindness that had led inevitably to political and military catastrophe. Updated and revised, Fisk's book gives us a further insight into this troubled part of the world. 'Robert Fisk is one of the outstanding reporters of this generation. As a war correpondent he is unrivalled.' Edward Mortimer, Financial Times
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It was snowing in Litewska Street; not big, heavy flakes but small, hard, blinding droplets, almost sleet, that blessed the dull suburban road with a kind of grey fog. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
It was snowing in Litewska Street; not big, heavy flakes but small, hard, blinding droplets, almost sleet, that blessed the dull suburban road with a kind of grey fog. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Probably one of the most powerful books I have ever read, Fisk gets to the heart of Lebanon and all of its diversity.
I found this book intellectually satisfying in that at its conclusion I felt I finally had a grasp of how the country's complex political arrangements actually work. This has really helped to provide some context to the ongoing turmoil in Lebanon and the region. The book also made an impact on an emotional level as I felt a real pang of terror during the recent Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, as if someone I know personally were being violated. A powerful book, indeed.
Fisk writes from and about Lebanon from the point of view of a transplanted native. This is what gives his writing its passion, but also its shall we say "non-mainstream" perspective. One assumes the average reader is intelligent enough to take this into account in developing one's own views on the many conflicts the book describes.
This is one of two books most often recommended as introductions to the study of Lebanon and especially its relationship with Israel, the other being Thomas Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem". Friedman's book is the more readable for a general audience; Fisk's intense work is for those who really want to delve deeply into the subject.
I found this book intellectually satisfying in that at its conclusion I felt I finally had a grasp of how the country's complex political arrangements actually work. This has really helped to provide some context to the ongoing turmoil in Lebanon and the region. The book also made an impact on an emotional level as I felt a real pang of terror during the recent Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, as if someone I know personally were being violated. A powerful book, indeed.
Fisk writes from and about Lebanon from the point of view of a transplanted native. This is what gives his writing its passion, but also its shall we say "non-mainstream" perspective. One assumes the average reader is intelligent enough to take this into account in developing one's own views on the many conflicts the book describes.
This is one of two books most often recommended as introductions to the study of Lebanon and especially its relationship with Israel, the other being Thomas Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem". Friedman's book is the more readable for a general audience; Fisk's intense work is for those who really want to delve deeply into the subject.
44 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a haunting testament to the tragedies that have been such a large part of Lebanon's recent history. If, like me, you knew little of the Lebanon before reading the book, you will find yourself in the hands of someone who knows about what atrocities have taken place because he has witnessed them at first hand. The descriptions haunt me still.
But this is more than just a history book. It is the story of a journalist working in the Middle East and provides an insight into the challenges of reporting in a climate dominated by violence. Fisk shares with his readers the exhaustion, fear, frustration and even nausea that would seem to have been his constant companions during much of his time in the Lebanon.
This is not a book to enjoy, but it is a book to value. From the opening pages on the Nazi Holocaust, to description of the massacre at Sabra and Chatila, Fisk reports with compassion and even handed condemnation of the perpertrators. Few books have had the impact on me that Pity The Nation has had.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Robert Fisk writes superbly well and reports at first hand his experiences in Lebanon. He witnessed many horrors and reported the brutal facts with clarity and passion. He is in tune with the people and gives the reader a thoughtful insight into the reality of the region's conflict.
This book is required reading for anyone who wishes to see through the propaganda and mythology which typifies Israeli style occupation and indiscriminate punishment of civilians who dare to resist. This purchase replaced an earlier copy which had become worn out through rereading so many brilliantly written chapters.
This book is required reading for anyone who wishes to see through the propaganda and mythology which typifies Israeli style occupation and indiscriminate punishment of civilians who dare to resist. This purchase replaced an earlier copy which had become worn out through rereading so many brilliantly written chapters.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
interesting but read other books on Lebanon, or at least wikipedia to...
Interesting and very, very - too - detailed account. it is the kind of book when you can say that the author did not have enough time to write in a concise manner, ie cared more... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Nicu
detailed facts
I like this book and generally Rober Fisk, the author, I haven't finished reading but as I started the first chapters it just made me feel as an eyewitness of the events the author... Read more
Published 9 months ago by abdi
Pity the nation
Robert Fisk is renowned as one of the world's best foreign correspondents today, in particular on Middle Eastern issues. Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2010 by M. A. Krul
The best analysis of the civil war
Robert Fisk's important book on the history of the civil war in Lebanon, up to the recent past, provides one of the most authoritative sources on the country's recent history, the... Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2008 by Steven Allen
"Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself...
This book provides an exceptional depiction of the tragedies that Lebanon underwent during the last quarter of the 20th century,
The bulk of the book focuses on the... Read more
The bulk of the book focuses on the... Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2007 by R. S. Rabab
The Horrors of the Nation
Robert Fisk's extensive account of the Lebanese civil war is an amazing mosaic of events and stories that in its entirety paint a pretty good picture of the horrors that took place... Read more
Published on 14 April 2007 by Ulrik Jungersen Walther
Spellbinding!
A remarkable book. An account of one man's experiences rather than a conventional history.
The title uses Khalil Gibran's phrase 'Pity the nation that is full of... Read more
The title uses Khalil Gibran's phrase 'Pity the nation that is full of... Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2007 by Sigrid
PITY THE NATION
This is a great blow by blow horrific account of the conflict - I was a little disappointed that there was not more on what all the chaos was about. Read more
Published on 21 Jun 2006 by R. C. Morris
The most beautiful book I've read, but not the best history
This book divides opinion in those who read it. To make a gross generalisation, those towards the right see it as overly critical of the Israelis and the US, those towards the left... Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2004
Vastly Overrated One-sided Account of Lebanese Civil War
Pity the Nation would have ended up being a reference book for the Lebanese civil war if only it had been written by an impartial journalist. Robert Fisk is anything but.
Mr. Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2004 by geoyounes
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