Eugene L. Rogan is University Lecturer in the Modern History of the Middle East and a Fellow of St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He is the author of Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire (1999) and editor of Outside In: On the Margins of the Modern Middle East (2002). He is editor of The Contemporary Middle East series published by Cambridge. Avi Shlaim is Professor of International Relations and a Fellow of St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He was a British Academy Research Professor in 2003–6 and he was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2006. His previous publications include War and Peace in the Middle East: A Concise History (1995), The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (2000) and Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace (2008).

• Preface to the second edition; Introduction; 1. The Palestinians and 1948: the underlying causes of failure Rashid Khaldi; 2. Revisiting the Palestinian exodus of 1948 Benny Morris; 3. The Druze and the birth of Israel Laila Parsons; 4. Israel and the Arab coalition in 1948 Avi Shlaim; 5. Jordan and 1948: the persistence of an official history Eugene L. Rogan; 6. Iraq and the 1948 war: mirror of Iraq's disorder Charles Tripp; 7. Egypt and the 1948 war: internal conflict and regional ambition Fawaz A. Gerges; 8. Syria and the Palestine War: fighting King 'Abdullah's 'Greater Syria Plan' Joshua Landis; 9. Collusion across the Litani? Lebanon and the 1948 war Matthew Hughes; 10. Saudi Arabia and the 1948 Palestine War: beyond official history Madawi Al-Rasheed; 11. Afterword: the consequences of 1948 Edward W. Said.

'The result is a book which is rich in new material and new insights and which enhances considerably our understanding of the historical roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict.' The Middle East