Road to Peace: A Biography of Shimon Peres [Hardcover]

Matti Golan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1989

Based on his subject's private papers as well as his own eyewitness experience covering Israeli politics over two decades, the author has created a biography of Shimon Peres.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Israeli journalist Golan discusses Peres's role as Israeli's defense minister in the 1950s, his cultivation of the French military and their aid to the Israeli armed forces. He then traces the political career, first as one of Israel's "political twins" along with Moshe Dayan (contending that Peres built the political power Dayan wielded), then as leader of the Labor party. Peres expected to win the premiership in the 1984 elections, but had to share it with Yitzhak Shamir, each taking a two-year turn. During his tenure Peres succeeded in bringing the Israeli Defense Force out of Lebanon, performed the "economic miracle" of decreasing inflation and took diplomatic initiatives that, according to Golan, restored Israel's reputation as a peace-loving nation. The author often refers to the Israeli public's mistrust of Peres and his undeserved reputation as "a deceiver . . . a man incapable of taking the straight path." In this evasive biography Golan fails to explain adequately the source of that reputation or its validity.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Hebrew

Product Details

• Hardcover: 357 pages
• Publisher: Time Warner Paperbacks; First Edition edition (November 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044651425X
• ISBN-13: 978-0446514255
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,544,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Met some expectations and fell short for others, March 26, 2008

By 

Matthew Smith "Roger Mexico" (TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Road to Peace: A Biography of Shimon Peres (Hardcover)

I saw this book in a used book store for a dollar and decided might as well. I had been looking for some pre-revisionist histories of Israel and leading Israeli figures and assumed this would be perfect for that. In a lot of ways this book met my expectations, but in other ways it came up, surprisingly, short.

The book, as a pre-revisionist, history was just what I expected. It's very pro-Israel and tends to put a lot of blame on the Arabs and other nations for all the conflicts and the lack of successful peace negotiations. This was exactly what I wanted. I wanted the Israeli perspective, and I was interested primarily in the time before the organized peace movements really started to become a force. As far as that goes, the book was exactly what I wanted.

The other reason why I bought this particular work is because it was biography of Peres. A man instrumental in the forming and guiding of the Israeli state. He is also one of the Israeli political figures I admire the most, so I was uniquely interested in his story. Now I realize this book was short and I certainly did not expect a detailed account of his life and political career, but with that said I found this book to be severely lacking in some key areas as a biography, hence the three stars. I was interested in how the pre-state violence affected Peres' perspective as regards Arab relations. The book offered nothing on this, and as for the Yom Kippur war this book covered this period in about six pages. I was quite astounded at the shallowness of the authors coverage of this period. A period so profound and life altering for Israelis and their state. These two examples could be further expounded upon, but I will just say these problems were endemic of this work.

As I said before I didn't expect the definitive biography of this man form such a short work, but I also didn't expect the book to skim over such large swaths of important areas either. If you are like me and are looking for a pre-revisionist, pro-labour history to get a quick perspective then give this book a go, but this book is really only relevant within those very narrow confines.