Bethlehem: Biography of a Town

"[Bethlehem] brings within reach 11,000 years of history, centering on the beloved town's unique place in the world. Blincoe's love of Bethlehem is compelling, even as he does not shy away from the complexities of its chronicle."--President Jimmy Carter

"Blincoe's book is as multifaceted as the city about which he writes. With great skill he accomplishes the daunting task of providing a highly readable account covering the long history of Bethlehem from the Stone Age to modern times. But it is not only a work of scholarship. It's a book by a talented chronicler who lovingly paints the city's many contradictions and bewildering complexity. Highly readable and informative it leaves the reader not only with a profound admiration for this city of extremes and its resilient inhabitants who have endured such hardships but also with a deep lament at the current suffering of the people of Bethlehem."--Raja Shehadeh, author of Where The Line Is Drawn

"A lovely personal adventure through the history of Bethlehem from its origins up to the present day. Blincoe captures the continuities and contradictions, the myths and the history of one of the world's most famous towns."--Peter Frankopan, author of Silk Roads

"A remarkable and important history with fascinating insights round every corner."--Charlie English, author of The Storied City

"An exuberant and erudite journey into the real Bethlehem. Each page leads the reader down new and fascinating tangents of history, cuisine, and personal anecdote, each time somehow finding its way back to Bethlehem and its habit of standing at the center of world affairs."--Jacob Norris, author of Land of Progress: Palestine in the Age of Colonial Development

"This is a learned, trenchant and badly-needed history of one of the most famous and symbolically-laden, yet woefully misunderstood, cities on earth. Millions believe they care deeply about Bethlehem without knowing the first thing about its history or lived reality. The next time someone feels like singing about this 'little town, ' perhaps they should spend some time with Mr. Blincoe's illuminating book first."--Hussein Ibish, Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington

"A history of the town of Bethlehem, both sweeping and personal in scope."--Kirkus Reviews

"All will leave these pages with a richer understanding of an iconic city."--Booklist

"Blincoe weaves a tapestry of history, geography, and politics that illuminates this most famous of areas, here seen through the eyes of one who knows the place intimately."
--Library Journal, Starred Review

"Blincoe's thoroughness is nothing short of impressive... [Bethlehem] offers a biography so vividly imagined that I jumped when my phone buzzed, interrupting my reverie of Nabatean temples... The reward is in the lush prose and personal accounts. Blincoe is a joyful writer, well suited to the task of evoking place with passages...transporting the reader with mouthwatering specificity. ...More than anything, his love for the place leaps off the page; for all its chronicling of incursions and defeat, this is ultimately a book about hope."--New York Times Book Review