Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades, from the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to the ongoing intifada, is a direct consequence of those six days of fighting.

Writing with a novelist's command of narrative and a historian's grasp of fact and motive, Michael B. Oren reconstructs both the lightning-fast action on the battlefields and the political shocks that electrified the world. Extraordinary personalities--Moshe Dayan and Gamal Abdul Nasser, Lyndon Johnson and Alexei Kosygin--rose and toppled from power as a result of this war; borders were redrawn; daring strategies brilliantly succeeded or disastrously failed in a matter of hours. And the balance of power changed--in the Middle East and in the world. A towering work of history and an enthralling human narrative, Six Days of War is the most important book on the Middle East conflict to appear in a generation.

Praise for Six Days of War

"Powerful . . . A highly readable, even gripping account of the 1967 conflict . . . [Oren] has woven a seamless narrative out of a staggering variety of diplomatic and military strands."--The New York Times

"With a remarkably assured style, Oren elucidates nearly every aspect of the conflict. . . . Oren's [book] will remain the authoritative chronicle of the war. His achievement as a writer and a historian is awesome."--The Atlantic Monthly

"This is not only the best book so far written on the six-day war, it is likely to remain the best."--The Washington Post Book World

"Phenomenal . . . breathtaking history . . . a profoundly talented writer. . . .
This book is not only one of the best books on this critical episode in Middle East history; it's one of the best-written books I've read this year, in any genre."--The Jerusalem Post

"[In] Michael Oren's richly detailed and lucid account, the familiar story is thrilling once again. . . . What makes this book important is the breadth and depth of the research."--The New York Times Book Review

"A first-rate new account of the conflict."--The Washington Post

"The definitive history of the Six-Day War . . . [Oren's] narrative is precise but written with great literary flair. In no one else's study is there more understanding or more surprise."--Martin Peretz, Publisher, The New Republic

"Compelling, perhaps even vital, reading."--San Jose Mercury News