DIVIDED CITY is a vivid memoir of an American boy growing up in the midst of the Arab-Israeli conflict, three major wars & three decades of political upheavals in the Middle East. Set in Jerusalem (1956-1958), Beirut (1970), Saudi Arabia (1962-1965), Amman & Cairo (1965-1967), Bird`s book explains through a blend of memoir & history why the Western experience in the Middle East has been so turbulent. Through Bird`s Zelig-like presence, the reader experiences the Suez War of 1956, the June 1967 War & the Black September hijackings of 1970 that led to the Jordanian Civil War. Bird`s memoir shows how all of these momentous events led to the rise & tragic downfall of a secular Arab nationalist ethos -- only to be replaced by the rise of a fundamentalist, politically reactionary Islamist movement. The narrative history tells the stories of such illuminating figures as life-long Jerusalem resident George Antonius, author of The Arab Awakening, & his charismatic wife; Jordan`s King Hussein & his CIA connections; the businessman Salem bin Laden, Osama`s older brother & a family friend; Saudi kings Faisal & Khalidl; President Nasser of Egypt; & Leila Khaled, the striking young Palestinian radical who hijacked one of the Black September planes. The son of a U.S. Foreign Service officer, Kai Bird spent his formative years with the Arabs, but he ended up marrying the only daughter of two Holocaust survivors. This Shoah survival story becomes a part of Bird`s own personal narrative, & provides him with a deeper understanding of the historical relationship between the destruction of European Jewry & the Arab-Israeli conflict. This extraordinary memoir by a Pulitzer-prize-winning historian sheds new light on all the wars of the Middle East fought in the name of identity.