In 1867, a California newspaper commissioned Mark Twain to accompany a group of travelers to the Holy Land and report on his experiences. The trip provided the humorist with an abundance of material for his satiric classic The Innocents Abroad. A century and a half later, author Ian Strathcarron scrupulously retraces Twain's footsteps, recounting the history of his predecessor's journeys and his own impressions of the region and its people.
A travel book as well as a unique literary history, Innocence and War is the first complete book devoted to this particular episode in...