Name: Pity the Nation
ISBN: 9780671747701

Pity the Nation

"Written by one of Britain's most distinguished journalists, this remarkable book is an epic account of the Lebanon conflict by an author who has personally witnessed the carnage of Beirut for twenty-six years. It is a story of western betrayal and the loss of American power and prestige in the Middle East. This book tells, too, in frightening detail, the story of the Middle East's first suicide bombers and their first devastating strike at Americans. Through a combination of war reporting and political analysis. Robert Fisk describes Lebanon's ferocious civil war and subsequent Israeli invasions, the Lebanese militias whose appalling brutality spared no one; the US Marines who found themselves trapped in the horror of Lebanon where many of them were to meet a terrible fate; and the Israelis, who tried to install their own puppet rulers, and with their 1982 invasion provoked war crimes of their own. Fully updated to include the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon and Ariel Sharon's electoral victory, this American edition has sixty pages of new material and a revised preface."--BOOK JACKET.

What Hacker News says

rsj_hnOct 2021

For progressive takes, I recommend Thomas Frank.

Chris Hedges is also good in that he has coverage of working class issues, but like the rest of the alt-reporting crowd, there is a lot of strident oversimplification and too much crusading. The temptation to sensationalize and ignore contradictory data is just too great. For example, you can't just rant about "greedy healthcare industries" and expect to generate more light than heat. Healthcare is complicated, and cannot be boiled down to a couple of the seven deadly sins. .

You can't view the world through a theological lense and be a good reporter. You can, however, view the world through a theological lense and get a lot of useful data. And that is ultimately the job of the reporter -- to provide useful data, understanding that it is just a small slice of reality, but an important slice that deserves to be made known.

I would also put Robert Fisk in the same bucket -- I loved to read him, and enjoyed "Pity the Nation", but then he had all these extreme takes about china-petro-dollar conspiracies that made me groan. But still, he provided useful data that was a slice of reality.

Greenwald, Taibbi, all these fall into the same bucket. Good on the ground stories, but ignore the sweeping conclusions.

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vonnikApr 2015

I don't think Beirut's politicians are the only political risk the city is exposed to. Anyone familiar with the recent history of Lebanon knows that it is the pawn in a bloody geopolitical game being played by the US, Israel, Syria and Iran, among others. All of those countries have the power to destabilize Lebanon and its capital in a variety of ways. Many local politicians are tied to one or more of those interests. Anyone who thinks Lebanon will be stable any time soon should read Robert Fisk's "Pity the Nation."

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scorpioxyMar 2010

Oh, lots! I wish you'd narrow down to some categories you're interested in.

A few example i enjoyed: The State of Africa, Martin Meredith The Code Book, Simon Singh Pity the Nation, Robert Fisk The Great War for Civilization, Robert Fisk Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch Fermat's Engima, Simon Singh

Lots more....

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scorpioxyMay 2008

Well, for non-technical books; I have enjoyed the following in no particular order: - Founders At Work - Eric Sink on the Business of Software - The Great War for Civilization - Pity the Nation - On Intelligence - The State of Africa - Long Walk to Freedom ....etc

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