"The study of the Israeli-Palestinial conflict has generated a great deal of scholarship over the past fifty years. Yet, this book is different and unique in its focus and analysis. The authors have produced a first-rate scholarly project that maps the Israeli-Palestinian conflict overa one hundred year period...." Read the rest of the review

--Amos Kiewe
Syracuse University

"The main argument ofthis book is that a balance of myth and pragmatism is needed for a stable human society. While pragmatism without myth lacks power, the development of Israeli and Palestinian symbol use illustrates how myth without pragmatism can lead to extremism. Robert C. Rowland and David A. Frank provide ample support for this view in Shared Land/Conflicting Identity: Trajectories of Israeli and Palestinian Symbol Use...." Read the rest of the review

--Rasha I. Ramzy
Georgia State University

"This fascinating study provides a rhetorical history of some of the major pragmatic and mythic elements in key Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. Rowland and Frank explain how various Israeli and Palestinian texts and other symbolic negotiations have helped facilitate or hinder the search for lasting peace in these contested lands, and they analyze some of the successes and failures of the Oslo Accords and other diplomatic initiatives. Their careful analysis of the trajectories of many competing rhetorical identities within Israeli and Palestinian communities helps us understand some of the shifting political alliances and changing expectations that are a part of these complex diplomatic landscapes. This will be essential reading for anyone interested in exploring the nexus that exists between rhetoric, ideology, and nationalist myths."

--Marouf A. Hasian Jr.,
Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University of Utah

"If you want to understand why the conflict in the Middle East is so intractable, read this book. Beyond all the military, religious, and diplomatic issues is the fact that Israel and the Palestinians rely on incompatible symbols and take them to 'the end of the line.' Outsiders can envision compromises but the participants cannot consider them. Rowland and Frank explain how this situation developed and what must be done to bring rhetoric, ideology, and myth into productive balance."

--David Zarefsky,
Professor of Communication Studies, Northwestern University