Thirteen Days in September
Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2014 PICK
A TOP TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR PICK BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A gripping account of the 1978 Camp David summit when President Jimmy Carter persuaded Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to sign the first peace treaty in the modern Middle East, one which endures to this day.
With his hallmark insight into the forces at play in the Middle East, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright takes us through each of these historic thirteen days, illuminating the issues that have made the problems of the region so intractable and exploring the scriptural narratives that continue to frame the conflict. What emerges is a riveting view of the making of this unexpected and unprecedented peace treaty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wright (Going Clear), Pulitzer Prize winner and staff writer for the New Yorker, offers a thorough study of the Camp David Accords of 1978 in this meticulously researched affair, which goes beyond the core events to address a multitude of historical factors. On the surface, this is about U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the 13 days the men and their respective staffs spent trying to hammer out a peace treaty. Wright takes the conference day by day, detailing the clashes and compromises that marked the final results. He also delves into biblical events and the numerous conflicts following Israel's creation in 1948. As Wright puts it, "This book is an account of how these three flawed men, strengthened but also encumbered by their faiths, managed to forge a partial and incomplete peace, an achievement that nonetheless stands as one of the great diplomatic triumphs of the twentieth century." Alternating between biographical studies of the people involved, sociopolitical histories of the countries and faiths represented, and an almost nail-bitingly tense unfolding of the conference itself, Wright delivers an authoritative, fascinating, and relatively unbiased exploration of a pivotal period and a complicated subject. Maps & photos.
