On Saturday, February 3 at 5:30 p.m. and on Sunday, February 4 at 12:30 p.m., EST, CBC Newsworld’s "Hot Type" with Evan Solomon will feature historian Michael Oren, best-selling author of "Six Days of War." Oren’s latest book is "Power, Faith and Fantasy," a comprehensive history of America’s political, military, and intellectual involvement in the Middle East from George Washington to George W. Bush.
Hot Type claims to "understand the world around us through books, all filtered through the active mind, engaging manner and probing style of our host Evan Solomon."
In Saturday’s Globe & Mail, Michael Bell, former Canadian ambassador to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Jordan, reviews Oren’s new book (see the full review here).
Choice quotes include:
?The Jewish-American, now Israeli, historian Michael Oren has written a fascinating volume. It has been criticized by some as overripe with narrative and lacking analysis, but my reaction has been different. Not only is Power, Faith and Fantasy an enjoyable read, from the Barbary pirates of the 18th century to Israel’s maturity, but Oren’s history is the essential underpinning of a bold assessment of the roots of U.S. Middle East policy and their profound influence on Washington’s policy-making today.
Despite some unevenness and fraying toward the end, Oren’s book provides a unique opportunity to understand, in a profound and nuanced way, why Americans act the way they do. Their long fascination with things Middle Eastern, and their attempts to reconcile power, faith and fantasy, make for compelling reading.?
