The Last Earth – a Palestinian Story

Challenging both academic and popular takes on Palestinian history, Dr. Ramzy Baroud unearths the deep commonalities within the story of Palestine, ones that draw the people together despite political divisions, geographical barriers and walls, factionalism, occupation, and exile.

Through firsthand reports, Baroud latest book portrays Palestine in all its complexity and contradictions, ever vibrant in the memories of the people who have fought, physically and otherwise, for its future. A remarkable book, The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story is essential to understanding the struggles in the contemporary Middle East.

This event is co-presented with the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney.

WHAT: Dr. Ramzy Baroud discussing his latest book – The Last Earth – a Palestinian Story
WHEN: MAY 15, 1-2pm 
WHERE: University of Sydney  – Sydney Nanoscience Hub, Lecture Theatre 4002,  Physics Road

Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He grew up in a refugee camp in Gaza. He is a US-Arab journalist, an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of the PalestineChronicle.com (1999-present). His books include “Searching Jenin”, “The Second Palestinian Intifada”, “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story” and his latest, The Last Earth – A Palestinian Story.

He has worked as Managing Editor of the London-based Middle East Eye (2014-15), former Editor-in-Chief of The Brunei Times and former Deputy Managing Editor of Al Jazeera online. He taught communications at Australia’s Curtin University of Technology, Malaysia Campus. Baroud also worked as Head of Aljazeera.net English’s Research and Studies department. He is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. He has a PhD in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter..

Dr Baroud’s latest book, The Last Earth – A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press) has just been released and he will speak about this book in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth.

 

The Last Earth – A Palestinian Story – Summary and Reviews

Ramzy Baroud speaking in February this year about The Last Earth  – A Palestinian Story  
Spanning decades and encompassing war, mass exodus, epic migrations and the search for individual and collective identity, The Last Earth tells the story of modern Palestine through the memories of those who have lived it. Challenging both academic and popular takes on Palestinian history, Dr. Ramzy Baroud unearths the deep commonalities within the story of Palestine, ones that draw the people together despite political divisions, geographical barriers and walls, factionalism, occupation, and exile.

Through firsthand reports, Baroud’s latest book portrays Palestine in all its complexity and contradictions, ever strong in the memories of the people who have fought, physically and otherwise, for its future. A remarkable book, The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story is essential to understanding the struggles in the contemporary Middle East.

Ordinary Palestinians have rarely narrated their own history. In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed author Ramzy Baroud draws on dozens of interviews to produce vivid, intimate and beautifully written accounts of Palestinian lives – in villages, refugee camps, prisons and cities, in the lands of their ancestors and in exile. Baroud’s empathetic and lyrical approach reveals new human dimensions of the Palestinian saga, telling it as it has never before been told.

Against dominant narratives, the last earth reclaims Palestine’s past – and present – for all its people.

‘In the finest tradition of people’s history, these sensitive, painful and evocative pieces provide a human face to the painful saga of Palestinian torment and the remarkable courage and resilience of the victims’ – Noam Chomsky

‘A powerful tool to revive and record the human history of al Nakba, a must read for all those who want to see the concealed human dimension of the Palestinian life and suffering’ – Salman Abu Sitta, author of Mapping my Return (The American University in Cairo Press, 2016)

‘Engaging, unforgettable, complex and unique. The Last Earth provides a unique way of tackling the problem of writing history. Reading it is like walking around a gallery of old master paintings, each telling its own harrowing and often beautiful story about the same episode in human history’ – Baroness Jenny Tonge