nursays's review against another edition
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.5
I went in appreciating the attention to detail in tracking Palestine through history, but am leaving with a sense of deep outrage. The last two chapters especially trace the efforts undertaken by the colonisers to 'rename to reclaim' and the author gives plenty of examples to support this.
trizhaster's review against another edition
IM TOO STUPID ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
Free Palestine tho
Free Palestine tho
mothgoth's review against another edition
4.0
This was a lot!! I'm not an ancient history expert or even casual reader, so a lot of this was a bit of a slower read as I was trying to place the people, places and empires mentioned. The author did a pretty good job giving context to a lot of it. I appreciated the the mention of nation-states being a relatively modern invention and that countries existed in a different way throughout time than they do now, with borders and understandings shifting. Palestine seemed to exist under various "authorities" throughout history, such as during the Roman empire, Byzantine empire, various Muslim rulers, the Ottoman empire... despite this, the Palestinians were a distinct group of people, their land and country producing goods, trading, and being known for art and poetry. After being colonized, there was an effort to erase this history and even the land, with towns being destroyed to place Israeli settlements on top, and even a "re-forestation" effort by the JNF to attempt to wipe out evidence of there being towns underneath these newly planted forests. However, history seems clear that Palestinians and Palestine have existed throughout centuries and the evidence is there through maps, administration records, pottery, family lines, writing... I'd definitely be more interested in reading histories of the Middle East in general after checking this out and seeing it through another people's perspective. This was good.Â
taratearex's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
 This is a really fascinating book about Palestine and it's history over thousands of years. This is not really written as an overall history of Palestine though, it's more written as a reference book to the history of what the land was called over time and through that shows who lived on the land, as well as who passed through the land and wrote about it. And it also reads like a linguistic study, there is a lot about language over time, which I found fascinating. This is a really interesting way to look at the history of Palestine, especially since so much history has been ignored, erased, and rewritten. This book really highlights how we don't get history told from people who experienced oppression and colonization, it's written by the oppressors and by white people and this really emphasizes how much that effects what we learn about history. It also really highlights how terrible our (American) education around the Middle East is.
It's a fascinating and devastating book. I do think this not an intro level book- for nonfiction readers and people learning about the region, but I do hope more people read it. Because this book is written in a very reference book way, it is very dense to read and there is a lot of repetition (I think some of that makes sense given the structure, but some of it also seemed like editing issues).
I found listening to the audiobook while following along in the physical book really helpful to stay engaged given the writing style. The voice actor does an amazing job. The audiobook is available on Everand (Scribd).Â
It's a fascinating and devastating book. I do think this not an intro level book- for nonfiction readers and people learning about the region, but I do hope more people read it. Because this book is written in a very reference book way, it is very dense to read and there is a lot of repetition (I think some of that makes sense given the structure, but some of it also seemed like editing issues).
I found listening to the audiobook while following along in the physical book really helpful to stay engaged given the writing style. The voice actor does an amazing job. The audiobook is available on Everand (Scribd).Â
hosaiqasmi's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
A must read. Very detailed and informative historical overview of Palestine.Â
lauraschwemm's review against another edition
Reading to untangle the knots that are the Middle East. This book provided historical information in the first 9 chapters. So much that I did not know. once the author reaches 1948 Masalha lists name-changes and place-name changes, and anything else, as stemming only from the Israeli need to erase Palestine and Palestinians. That certainly was one motivation, but there were many other forces at work. . There are events and facts, it’s the interpretations that can never be straightforward. I will spend a lot of time thinking about Masalha’s book. If the history from 1948 were easier to explain, people would not be tearing up the world right now. Â