Volume 9, Number 3 · August 24, 1967
East of Eden
By George Lichtheim
Suez
by Hugh Thomas
Harper & Row, 261 pp., $5.95
No End of a Lesson: The Story of Suez
by Anthony Nutting
Constable, 205 pp., 25s
The third round in the Arab-Israeli conflict is barely over, and here are two books dealing with the previous round: the Suez affair of 1956. Are they worth reading? The answer must be a qualified yes: heavily qualified in the case of Anthony Nutting, less so in relation to Hugh Thomas. Both authors inevitably concentrate upon Britain's role in the 1956 crisis, and to the extent that British influence has shrunk since then, this approach must seem parochial. But Mr. Thomas and, to a lesser degree, Mr. Nutting, also cast some light upon the permanent factors in the Middle-Eastern tangle. For the historically minded reader there is the additional attraction of insight into the mechanism that comes into play when an imperial system finally disintegrates.
Review, 3810 words
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