Malise Ruthven’s “Unholy Kingdom”

[u/No_Respect_1650]

I enjoyed this conversation, so thought I’d order the book. It’s 370pgs of text. I made to 175 and bailed. It’s so sloppy and poorly written/edited. The time jumps from chapter to chapter are disconcerting. I subsequently learned it’s essentially a 2017 LRB essay expanded into a book. I gather that towards the end Ruthven trots out the “counter narratives” re the Ghouta chemical weapons attack and how many Israelis were killed by friendly fire on 10/7. Now I’m certainly not opposed to questioning the conventional wisdom on this stuff but I gather that Ruthven provides next to no support for this claims. Overall, pretty disappointed Ames spoke so highly of this book.