New Release!
David Lesch is a modern-day Renaissance man whose work has spanned continents and allowed him to explore cultures near and far. An acclaimed scholar, educator, author, and conflict resolution specialist, he has advised five U.S. presidential administrations at the highest levels about the head-spinning political, religious, and cultural complexities of the Middle East. He is the author or editor of many books about the history of this conflicted region.
Long before, as the number one draft pick for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1980, Lesch followed his American dream of playing baseball until he was sidelined with a shoulder injury. He later became a distinguished professor of Middle East studies at Trinity University and was soon tapped by the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, and governments and policy centers and internationally.
Dodgers to Damascus documents a part of the world that has been shrouded in mystery and plagued by conflict, power struggles, and warfare for ages. It provides a firsthand glimpse inside modern Syria, its neighboring countries, and their connections to the rest of the world, afforded by Lesch’s tenuous relationship with President Bashar al-Assad—including a poisoned meal that almost cost him his life. Through interviews with Lesch and his friends, family, former students, conflict resolution specialists, and international diplomats, Catherine Nixon Cooke takes readers on the adventure-filled life journey of an unassuming hero, complete with all the elements of a Hollywood thriller paralleling his own personal story of loss, crisis, and redemption.
