Book review: Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Reviewed by Doris Mousdale

"... An incredibly readable story of the city," says reviewer Doris Mousale of Arcadia Bookstore.
"... Montefiore takes the history of the old city from its beginnings as a fortified village through every conquest or occupation -- Canaanite, Israelite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, Seleucid, Roman, Byzantine, Ummayad, Abassid, Fatimid, Seljuk, Crusader, Saracen, Tatar, Mamluk, Ottoman, British, Jordanian and finally Israeli. Rival places of worship were destroyed and new ones constructed with the stones of earlier buildings, thus making Jerusalem the most complicated archaeological site in the world. Populations were slaughtered or sold into slavery, then later replaced by new waves of immigration. Montefiore's book, packed with fascinating and often grisly detail, is a gripping account of war, betrayal, looting, rape, massacre, sadistic torture, fanaticism, feuds, persecution, corruption, hypocrisy and spirituality." -- Guardian UK. Full review at bit.ly/eHlqqK
Book details: bit.ly/nRBLCe
Video book review by Doris Mousdale, Arcadia Bookshop, Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand
Video produced by BookTVnz, www.booktv.co.nz

[@anitakoch3895]

I hv bought the book and I hv read it. At one point the author alleges that Roman Emperor Hadrian gave the name Palestine to the region. I hv now my doubts as it says somewhere else that it was a Greek historian Herodotus who mentioned Palaistine 500 yrs earlier. Can you pl clarify me on this matter? by this way of correspondence. Much appreciate.. I greatly enjoyed reading the book, it is very informative plus the the photos are great.

[@lettucerules]

The book is propaganda