Mandatory Reading

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1. Joanne says:

   December 4, 2007 at 6:29 am

   I’m sorry, but I thought that Joan Peters’ book was discredited back in the 1980s, when it was originally published. Even some pro-Israeli commentators, I believe, accepted the judgment that she fiddled with facts, figures, and quotations. I wish her thesis were correct, but I’m afraid her book carries little weight these days.

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2. Aussie Dave says:

   December 4, 2007 at 7:15 am

   Joanne,

   I do not accept that her book was discredited. Criticized, yes. And of course the anti-Israel crowd have tried to discredit it. But as Daniel Pipes said in his review of the book
   

   Before entering into the statistics and reports Miss Peters uses to put forward her argument, however, I should enter a word of caution about From Time Immemorial. The author is not a historian or someone practiced in writing on politics, and she tends to let her passions carry her away. As a result, the book suffers from chaotic presentation and an excess of partisanship, faults which seriously mar its impact. But they do not diminish the importance of the facts presented. Despite its drawbacks. From Time Immemorial contains a wealth of information, which is well worth the effort to uncover.

   And this, in a letter to the editor of the New York Review of Books:

   Faulty presentation notwithstanding, Miss Peters’s hypothesis is on the table; it is incumbent on her critics to cease the name-calling and make a serious effort to show her wrong..

   And if you have read Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel, you will see he quotes regularly from Ms Peter’s book.

   It is my personal opinion that this book is mandatory reading. And notwithstanding Daniel Pipe’s criticisms about its presentation, I found it to be a relatively easy and interesting read.

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