Dead Sea and the Jordan River

The Jordan River and its terminal lake the Dead Sea have been on center stage of Middle East mythology, history, and politics for millennia. Barbara Kreiger's story of the modern day demise of these waters and the urgent need for their rehabilitation is a must-read for anyone that wants to understand the relevance of water issues to the continuing turmoil in the region.

The Dead Sea and the Jordan River may not be standard reading material for those interested in books about Israel but its format as part travelogue, part history, and part review of the challenges facing this unique natural phenomenon makes it hard to put down.

In its sweep of history, Kreiger's book conveys a powerful sense of how the world was once viewed, as a source of never-ending wonder tinged with divinity, how that view shifted to accommodate the curiosity we call science and above all how, throughout several inventive millennia, the practice of subjugation has scarcely changed.

Students of the Middle East will doubtless find this exhaustive report on the history and geopolitical details of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River indispensable.

Kreiger's remarkable literary gifts enable the book to be ranked with the best of travelogues as she makes it possible for the reader to participate in all facets of the region, natural, human, and political, as they have unfolded from the earliest to the present times.

A rare, full-bodied study . . . [that] combines fresh, imaginative writing and serious research. I cannot imagine another trip to this, the lowest point on earth, without the Kreiger book in hand.

A rare natural, political, and human history . . . Remarkable and timely.

Combines fresh, imaginative writing and serious research.