Frederick Deknatel | The Nation

Andrew Tabler’s In the Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle With Syria; Steven Cook’s The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square.

After a plan to tow icebergs from Antarctica ran aground, the Saudis used their oil wealth to build desalination plants for watering their desert kingdom.

In Our Orbit: Tom Engelhardt's The American Way of War.

Washington hawks have put the kibosh on Barack Obama's ambassadorial appointment to Syria, further fueling skepticism in the Arab world about the "new beginning" he promised in Cairo last year.

Kai Bird's Crossing Mandelbaum Gate is a meditation on the collective failure of Israelis and Palestinians to reconcile their histories of loss and victimhood.