City of stone
Subtitle: the hidden history of Jerusalem
By: Meron Benvenisti ; translated by Maxine Kaufman Nunn.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Berkeley; Los Angeles
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 274
ISBN-13: 9780520205215
Subjects: Jewish-Arab relations.; Jerusalem -- History.; Jerusalem -- Ethnic relations.
Description: Jerusalem is more than a holy city built of stone: it is a battle cry, a magic spell, an act of defiance, a claim of sovereignty. To justify their rival claims, each faction has written extensive but partial and politically motivated chronicles of the city's ancient and contested history.

In City of Stone, Meron Benvenisti overcomes this legacy of self-interest to write an unofficial history of the city, a many-sided story without victors or vanquished. He describes with unparalleled depth, vividness, and compassion the triumphs and defeats of all the city's residents, from those who walk its streets today to the meddlesome ghosts that still inhabit the Holy City.

Benvenisti focuses primarily on the twentieth century, but, as with everything in Jerusalem, ancient history and ancient hatreds are constantly discovered just below the surface.
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: The quarry of history; title: The mute hills; title: Hallowed ground; title: The Lord Mayor; title: Blueprint for catastrophe; title: A marketplace of discord; title: Unraveling the enigma; title: Seashells on the Jerusalem shore