Customer Reviews

Making Peace

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Senator Mitchell deserves tremendous respect for his (continuing) role in the Northern Ireland peace process. This book delivers a clear and consise account of his participation in the events that led up to the Good Friday agreement. We get glimpses of all the major players and many unsung heroes who worked behind the scenes.

Perhaps in reaction to the long-winded Irish politicians he uses a very broad brush to describe the events and often condenses days of complex talks into a few sentences. This is not, as I initially hoped, a detailed description of the negotiations. But it does portray the kind of patience and determination that was needed to pull everything together and gives a taste of the complexity of the political situation around Northern Ireland. It's a nice read for anyone, but especially geared for the average American.

This book is an enjoyable read which will introduce you to all the major players in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Peace Accords, and give a good sense of what the challenges were and how the various parties worked to overcome them.

Unfortunately, it was probably too early for Mitchell to come out with any new details, and he is reluctant to be overly critical of any of the parties -- no doubt a wise move as the peace process contiues to move forward.

Hopefully, we will see another account from Mitchell in the future which will give a little bit more bite in terms of how he really feels. In the mean time, this book is well worth the quick read.

I read this book 4 years ago and thought of it again today when I heard that President Obama had named Senator Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East. A great read about what seemed to be an endless conflict. Read this book and be thankful that the skills brought to bear on the troubles in Nothern Ireland are now at work to find a peaceful solution in an even more troubled part of the world.

George J. Mitchell's book, "Making Peace," is a great book to read if one would like to learn about the peace process that occurred during the Troubles of Northern Ireland. Mitchell, an appointed delegate for the peace terms discusses some of the Troubles but looks mostly towards the peace negotiations.

If you followed the peace negotiations while they were occuring, you really have no need of this book. Mitchell is frustratingly vague throughout, relating the negotiations in the most general of terms and not giving us much new insight. I don't think I learned anything about the negotiations from this book that I didn't already know. Vague and dry, read this book only if you didn't follow the peace negotiations at all.

grea