French skillfully and compellingly examines a very complex topic: Tibetan identity, politics, nationalism, and the relationship of all this to China. Where most who approach Tibet are clouded by their own passion, French is able to sympathetically engage all sides, writing movingly of the idealism of both Western Tibetophiles and Chinese bureaucrats. His portrait of the Dalai Lama is ultimately admiring but recognizes that the leader is at least partially complicit in his people's suffering. For the general reader who wishes to learn about actual Tibetan life and the messy necessity of constructing a "national" identity, I highly recommend Tibet, Tibet