Hamas's overwhelming electoral victory in January 2006 transformed politics in the Middle East and shocked the world. That Hamas was able to seize control of the entire Gaza Strip in June 2007 confirmed it as a fixture in Palestinian politics, despite its status as a terrorist organization in Israel, the US, and the EU. In such an environment, Azzam Tamimi's Hamas: A History from Within is a vital book. In a starred review in Publishers Weekly, it was hailed as "a key resource in English for any serious assessment of the PalestinianùIsraeli conflict." Tamimi's longtime relationships and extensive interviews with Hamas's leading members allow him to create a more intimate portrait of Hamas, in its own words and from its own members, than has yet been available in English. This is an unmediated history of Hamas from its origins among the Muslim Brotherhood in the first intifada to the present.<BR><BR>One must understand Hamas in order to understand the current state of the IsraeliùPalestinian conflict; Hamas: A History from Within provides an unrivalled account of Hamas's history, structure, and objectives, largely in its own words.