City of stone : the hidden history of Jerusalem / Meron Benvenisti ; translated by Maxine Kaufman Nunn.

Includes index.

Jerusalem is more than a holy city built of stone: it is a battle cry, a magic spell, an act of defiance, a claim of sovereignty. To justify their rival claims, each faction has written extensive but partial and politically motivated chronicles of the city's ancient and contested history.

In City of Stone, Meron Benvenisti overcomes this legacy of self-interest to write an unofficial history of the city, a many-sided story without victors or vanquished. He describes with unparalleled depth, vividness, and compassion the triumphs and defeats of all the city's residents, from those who walk its streets today to the meddlesome ghosts that still inhabit the Holy City.

Benvenisti focuses primarily on the twentieth century, but, as with everything in Jerusalem, ancient history and ancient hatreds are constantly discovered just below the surface.