Decorated British foreign correspondent Robert Fisk has been based in the Middle East for the last 25 years, reporting from the world's worst trouble-spots. This is his first-person account of 50 years of bloodshed and tragedy in the area, from the Palestinian-Israeli bloodbath to the shock and awe of the current war against Iraq.

It is also a story of journalists at war, of the rage, humour and frustration of the correspondents who spend their lives reporting the first draft of history, their weaknesses and cowardice, their courage and truth-telling. After reading The Great War for Civilisation the reader grasps just why those 19 suicide pilots changed the world on September 11th. Brought right up to the current day and reporting from the heart of a bombed-out Baghdad, Fisk examines the factors leading up to the coalition forces entering Iraq, and discusses possible outcomes of long-term involvement there. Read an interview with Robert Fisk at http://www progressive.org/0901/intv1201.html See Robert Fisk's daily comment from the Middle East at www independent.co.uk