Finkelstein examines and scrutinizes popular historical versions of the conflict by authors such as Joan Peters, Benny Morris, Anita Shapira and Abba Eban.

The 2003 revised edition offers an additional appendix devoted to criticism of Michael Oren's 2002 bestseller Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East.

Finkelstein, expanding upon his doctorate thesis, writes that the modern Zionist historical tradition is based on a series of ideologically-charged systematic biases, all of which face considerable problems when measured up with the actual record in his view.

[2] Positive reception appeared in publications such as Foreign Affairs, The Guardian[citation needed] and the London Review of Books.

[4] William B. Quandt, in a short review in Foreign Affairs, praised the book as "required reading in the continuing war of the historians".