Arafat, the Man and the Myth

by Thomas Kiernan

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393075036
• ISBN13: 9780393075038
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 281 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

not fawning

What follows is what Martin Sieff says about this book in his "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East" (2008), classifying it as "a book you're not supposed to read." "Thomas Kiernan was no lover of Israel or the Zionists, which makes his biography "Arafat: The Man and the Myth" (New York: W. W. Norton, 1976) all the more devastating. Alone among Arafat's many (and usually fawning) biographers, Kiernan questioned the official versions skeptically and dug deep, interviewing many people who had known Arafat as a boy." (p. 104)

Indispensable for understanding Arafat's background, values

Written in 1975, Kiernan interviewed dozens of family members, fellow terrorists, and acquaintances, in addition to Arafat himself, in order to write what is arguably the most definitive biography of Arafat available. The only drawback is of course that it does not continue past 1975. Nevertheless, Kiernan's book gives the reader one of the few uncensored and factually accurate accounts of Arafat available. This book is not for the faint-hearted, but it is for those who want to understand who Yasir Arafat really was.