In this book the author seeks to understand the political causes and psychological effects of the conflicts in the Middle East. He sketches the prelude to the troubles, and places the events of 1979 to 1988 in their historical context while examining the course and meaning of the Lebanese civil wars, the Syrian self-mutilation at Hama, the refugee-camp massacres at Sabra and Shatila, and all the other terrible episodes in this apparently endless war. Thomas Friedman won two Pulitzer Prizes for his journalistic work in the Middle East.