Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, (2018) dj. Hardcover first edition - A title in the Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures series, and the first comprehensive look at the history of Hamas. "Neither a democratic political party nor a terrorist group, Hamas is a multifaceted liberation organization, one rooted in the nationalist claims of the Palestinian people. . . Drawing on interviews with organization leaders, as well as publications from the group, Tareq Baconi maps Hamas's thirty-year transition from fringe military resistance towards governance. He breaks new ground in questioning the conventional understanding of Hamas and shows how the movement's ideology ultimately threatens the Palestinian struggle and, inadvertently, its own legitimacy." Notes, bibliography, index. xxiv, 336 pp. ISBN: 978-0804797412.