A widely recognized expert on the unfolding crisis in Syria here melds reportage, analysis, and history in an accessible overview of events leading up to the toppling of the Assad regime and the fragile prospects for peace in its wake.
How did the Syrian regime fall? Gradually, then all at once.
In December 2024, the long and bloody stalemate in Syria broke down. In a transformation breathtaking for its suddenness and speed, President Bashar al-Assad, the beating heart of Arab authoritarianism, fled to Russia, his dungeons emptying as rebels overcame the Syrian army with scarcely a fight.
Euphoria at the collapse of a government people never voted for was tempered by fear for the future. The victorious insurgents were supported by outside powers and had a track record of brutality comparable to Assads in addition to religious fanaticism. Syrianswhose fragile, cosmopolitan mosaic has been repeatedly shattered by foreign-backed sectariansfaced rule by an avowedly Islamist regime that pledged to break with its past and show tolerance to all religious communities.
In this illuminating and concise survey, Charles Glass shows how Assads misrule, Sunni fundamentalism, and Western deceit combined to create and prolong the Syrian disaster, which since 2011 has claimed more than two hundred thousand lives and driven more than eight million people from their homes.
Glass has reported extensively from the Middle East and travelled frequently in Syria for more than fifty years. Here he melds reportage, analysis, and history to provide an accessible overview of the origins and permutations defining the conflict, situating it clearly in the broader crises of the region.
In this new and thoroughly revised edition of his earlier Syria Burning, Glass brings the story to the present, showing how we got here and what a post-Assad settlement might bring.
Recenzijos
A masterful guide. Glass makes the complex simple and Syrias torment human Joshua Landis, University of Oklahoma
"This is a book to be read by anybody seeking to understand the complexities of Syria; its richly mesmerising past and its tragic present. Charles Glass has delved deep into the very soul of the country in all its contrarian facets." Ghayth Armanazi, author of The Story of Syria
"A nuanced voice to all sides of the war in Syria, interweaving its modern history with key developments from earlier periods, thereby offering a kind of depth rarely found in other works. He diverges from most Western media. . . " Nikolaos van Dam, Former Ambassador of the Netherlands and Special Envoy for Syria
"Provides a fascinating, if horrifying, explanation of the impact of imperial interests on the country, from its foundation to the present." Counterfire
PRAISE FOR CHARLES GLASS:
More than ever in the era of twenty-four-hour soundbite news, events demand the long view ... With his deep experience of the Levant, that is exactly what Charlie Glass offers. Alan Cowell, former Middle East Bureau Chief, The New York Times
I am a lifetime admirer of T. E. Lawrence, but I cant help but remark what a great book his Seven Pillars of Wisdom would have been had he been as gifted a writer as Charles Glass. Evening Standard
I envy you if you have the luck to be meeting Charlie Glass. Christopher Hitchens
Daugiau informacijos
Leverage the authors connections in the media to pitch reviews, interviews, and op-eds across a wide range of mainstream and left-media. As this book follows on from the successful 2015 book Syria Burning, we will capitalise on previous media coverage and existing interest in this topic. The author has previously appeared on BBC Newshour, BBC Today, RT, Democracy Now!, VICE, The Takeaway with John Hockenberry, and has written for the New York Review of Books, the Evening Standard, The Monocle, and more. Syria Burning was reviewed by The Observer, History News Network, Monterey Herald, Warscapes, and more, and we will pitch to these outlets again.
Pitch op-eds, reviews, and excerpts to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The Nation, Al Jazeera, Jacobin, The Washington Post, The Intercept, Bookforum, Middle East Eye, Tribune, Morning Star, Monthly Review, Red Pepper, Declassified UK, The Canary, Novara Media, OpenDemocracy, Double Down News, and more. Pitch television, radio, and podcast interviews with Democracy Now!, Al Jazeeras UpFront, The Mehdi Hasan Show, BBC News, Intercepted, The Dig, Breaking Points, Rising, Useful Idiots, Bad Faith, Citations Needed, On the Media, Novara Media, A World to Win, and more.
A launch event with guest speakers in New York will garner further media attention.
Charles Glass was ABC News Chief Middle East Correspondent from 1983 to 1993. Since 1973, he has covered wars in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He is the author of Syria Burning, Tribes with Flags, The Tribes Triumphant, Money for Old Rope, The Northern Front, Americans in Paris, The Deserters, They Fought Alone, and Soldiers Don't Go Mad: A Story of Brotherhood, Poetry, and Mental Illness During the First World War.
