Robert F. Worth, a contributing writer, last wrote for the magazine about the security challenges facing American diplomats abroad.
Book I'm reading now:
"Kaputt," by Curzio Malaparte. This is a fascinating and gruesome first-hand account of the Eastern front in World War II. What makes it unusual is Malaparte's perspective: as an Italian diplomat and journalist he was given full access to the Axis war effort. He witnesses a savage pogrom in Romania where thousands of Jews are murdered, and recounts cozy state dinners with the Nazi elite, where the guests laugh about mass murder and gorge themselves on roast boar and venison. Malaparte is not a scrupulous witness; the dialogue has clearly been massaged in places to match his literary ambitions. But it's a powerful book, even if partly fictional.
Last book I loved:
Probably "Naples '44," by Norman Lewis. This is a short, spectacularly vivid account of the Anglo-American invasion of southern Italy in 1943. Lewis was a British intelligence officer, and he conjures up the suffering and humor of the Italians and the churlish incompetence of the invaders, with such poignancy and wit that I wanted to read every page twice (in fact I often did). His descriptions of the dirt-poor Neapolitan aristocrats who fed him information, and their outlandish schemes for political reform, had me laughing for days on end.
Unread book on my bedside table that gnaws at my conscience:
I have a bad habit of reading several books of history simultaneously. Here are three good books I've been working on for the better part of a year:
"Beirut," by Samir Kassir
"Legacy of Ashes: The History of the C.I.A.," by Tim Weiner
"An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943," by Rick Atkinson
Three books in my field that I highly recommend:
"The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran," by Roy Mottahedeh. An authoritative intellectual history of Iran, framed around the Islamic revolution of 1979.
"Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East," by David Hirst. An excellent account of Lebanon's crises and their effects on the broader Middle East.
"Cairo: The City Victorious," by Max Rodenbeck. A chatty, elegantly written history of Cairo (and of Egypt) by the Economist's Cairo bureau chief, who is one of the greatest Middle East correspondents ever.
One book I would recommend to anyone:
"1861: The Civil War Awakening," by Adam Goodheart. A lyrically written account of the start of the American Civil War, published last year. (Full disclosure: the author is a friend. The magazine also published an excerpt of the book in 2011.)
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