Who Dares, Wins.

Would you listen to Six Days of War again? Why?

Yes because there is so much information to absorb.

Any additional comments?

Having known the basic events of this war, this book brilliantly explains the background, reasoning and actions of all parties involved. Understanding the events of the 6 day war has allowed me to make a little sense of the situation since the war.

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1 person found this helpful

Informative and extensively researched

So much intrigue and courage displayed by the architects and leaders of this conflict and the entrenched diverse opinions of the parties involved. a great listen.

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A thourough analysis drawing on numerous sourcrs

Six Days of War has been advertised as a non-biased book about the subject. Of course it is biased. The author, Michael Oren, is an Israeli ex-ambassador. He does however go to great length in order to present an objective picture drawing from numerous sources, Israeli, Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, Soviet, American and other sources. Oren does a good job of masterfully switching between military tactics details and battle scenes described by eyewitnesses on both sides and the labirynths of diplomatical games of the superpowers. He paints vivid portraits of the great leaders of the time like Dayan, Eshkol, Naser, Amer and others. However, despite thousands of details and thorough military and political analysis, The Six Days of War convinced me even more of what I knew before reading the book: the outcome of that war, as the existence of the state of Israel itself is a miracle.

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Balance

Written by an Israeli this is surprisingly even in it’s telling.
I used Wikipedia as a guide, useful in historical events.
My take? Poor leadership often results in war, Egypt and Syria executed some of their officers shortly afterwards.

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Fascinating listen, just bring a map

The book is as detailed and thorough as one could hope for. It builds and builds, creeping towards the war you know is going to break out. Oren wonderfully breaks down the conversations, contexts, and collective strain that preceded the conflict. By the time the first shots are fired you have come to know the protagonists well, and can feel the exhaustion they must have felt after months of build-up and stress. The war itself is told well, highlighting the challenges of individual battles in enough detail to give you a sense of their danger and difficulty, but not too much as to overwhelm you with minute orders and commands.



Oren takes on the task of this assignment with as much neutrality and objectivity as is probably possible, but you end up getting a better feel for the Israeli side. This is not to say he takes a pro-Israel stance, just that the detail of the leadership decisions of the Israeli leadership is more than the other countries. He does an excellent job addressing the interests of each country, including the Russians and USA along with the entire Middle-East contingent, so this is not really a fault of the book, just an observation on my part. The other problem with the book, and I suspect this is related to the audio format, is that you really could benefit from a map. Yes, it is easy enough to envisage where Egypt and Israel sit on a map, but when he starts discussing different towns and passes, it would have been nice to have a map.



Overall, a wonderfully written and researched book that brings to light the hectic pace of negotiations and international diplomacy that tends to get overlooked when discussing this war.

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3 people found this helpful

Great book

It gives you the story and the detail. Would listen again. Absolutely fantastic performanced storyline

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1 person found this helpful

Balanced and engaging - a pivotal week in history.

Would you consider the audio edition of Six Days of War to be better than the print version?

The narration is clear and well paced and allowed the story to wash over me easily. Not necessarily better than reading a print version, it was certainly easier for me to access and meant I may have taken considerably longer to read otherwise.

What did you like best about this story?

The research behind this version of the 6 day war is drawn from more and more varied sources than previously available and as such it adds some clear and powerful validations of the facts as we historically have known them.

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Detailed informative with an excellent tone and delivery

An intensely detailed history that bowls along at the right pace with a narration that really hits the spot in terms of due gravitas fo important events but never boring. I enjoyed it from start to finish

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A fascinating acoount of the politics of a war

This is an excellent account of how a crisis can degenerate into a war. I know the history of the Middle East quite well but learned a great deal from this book -- particularly the reminders about how worthless security guarantees from Europe and the US can be. My only criticism of the book itself is that the author sometimes takes memoirs at face value rather than putting them in the context of the motivations of the writer and the subject: for example, are a few of the Yiddish bon mots what the players wish they had said or were they really that quick witted? The narrator is good and the reading is never dull but his pronunciation of Hebrew and Arabic terms is careless and sometimes unitelligible if you don't know what he is trying to say

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12 people found this helpful

Very well thought out outline and deep-dive into one of modern history is most important by conflicts

This is a superbly written audiobook. The author has thought very deeply about how best to outline and deep-dive into one of the most complex modern conflicts. It was really a joy to listen to, and at no time did I lose interest. If you are a history buff I can easily recommend it.

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