About the Author

Ron David, a former editor-in-chief of the For Beginners series, is also the author of Toni Morrison Explained: A Reader's Road Map to the Novels (Random House, 2000). Previous works for For Beginners include Arabs & Israel For Beginners, Jazz For Beginners, and Opera For Beginners. Ron has been a guest lecturer on all of these subjects across the United States, and he has been awarded a NJ State Council for the Arts fellowship for his novel-in-progress, The Lebanese Book of the Dead. He lives in Kihei, Hawaii, with his wife, the designer Susan David.

Reviews

"I have written 10 books about the complex Mideast conflict and read several hundred books on the same subjects. Ron David's is the best book in the field, leading all others including mine by many miles." -- Dr. M. T. Medhi, President of the Arab-American Relations Committee

"Well-organized and lucid... ["Arabs & Israel for Beginners"] does indeed deserve a large reading audience." -- Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr., author of "A Concose History of the Middle East"

"Take the research of Noam Chomsky... enliven it with skillful pensketched drawing... then trace 12,000 years of turbulent history with the irreverence of Saturday Night Live, and you have... Ron David's "Arabs & Israel for Beginners"." -- John Mahoney, Executive Director of Americans for Middle East Understanding