An Aesthetic Occupation- PB

A scholarly look at the role of architecture in the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, An Aesthetic Occupation: The Immediacy of Architecture and the Palestinian Conflict shows why controversies over monuments (like Ariel Sharon's infamous visit to Haram al-Sarif, which touched off the current intifada) can explode into violence. Focusing particularly on the British Mandate period and using examples like the Wailing Wall riots of 1929 and the restoration of the Dome of the Rock, Daniel Bertrand Monk, a SUNY-Stony Brook art and architecture professor, explores how holy sites were transformed into political symbols. Academic in tone, this unusual study offers a new perspective on a still roiling dispute. ( Feb.)