Jerusalem Unbound: Geography, History, and the Future of the Holy City by Michael Dumper

In his latest book on Jerusalem, Jerusalem Unbound, Michael Dumper begins with the important question, “why another book on Jerusalem?” With such a plethora of literature on Jerusalem and its context on the larger Palestinian conflict, the question is valid. Interestingly, Dumper justifies his most recent of three books on the city by his recent work on the interdisciplinary project entitled Conflict in Cities and the Contested State, which has pulled together scholars in sociology, architecture, urban studies, engineering, and political science to cultivate new perspectives on Jerusalem as an urban space. The results, claim Dumper, influenced his desire to write another book on Jerusalem, this time focusing on the city as a divided city with competing and contesting borders. Dumper draws upon previous research on divided cities, using the term to characterize Jerusalem in the same category as Belfast, Brussels, and Mostar, cities in which he continually references. He argues that Jeru