History and Foreign Affairs Roundtable Discussion &Book Club

The riveting story of how Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin, a former general who led the army in the Six-Day War, embraced his nemesis, PLO leader Yasser Arafat, in pursuit of a resolution to one of the 20th century's most intractible conflicts. At the same time, extremists on both sides worked to undermine the peace process, leading to Rabin's 1995 assassination by an Israeli, an event that fundamentally altered the course of the conflict.

We'll discuss the history leading up to the 1941 invasion and occupation of neutral Iran during WW II by Britain and the Soviet Union, the 1943 Tehran Conference, and how Iran outmaneuvered Stalin during the Azerbaijan Crisis of 1946 in the early stages of the Cold War.

Dower's brilliant examination of Japan in the immediate, shattering aftermath of WW II. The book is an important history of the more than six years of American occupation, which affected every level of Japanese society.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the 1999 National Book Award for Nonfiction, finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize.

Patrick Radden Keefe's gripping account of the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles and its aftermath. It is a tale of a society wracked by violent guerrilla warfare between the Provisional IRA and the British army, Ulster police and Unionist paramilitaries that culminated in an uneasy peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland. Keefe focuses on a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.