Appeared in The New Republic on October 15, 2011

On October 12, after five years of intensive negotiations, Israeli leaders and the Palestinian political group Hamas reached an agreement to release Israeli Staff Sergeant Gilad Schalit in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Schalit was captured and taken into the Gaza Strip during a 2006 cross-border raid by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. It is unclear how the deal will affect the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations, but public disapproval has already begun to emerge. The exchange of prisoners is a relatively modern invention, dating back to Napoleonic wars during which soldiers with wealthy families were held for ransom. Here, TNR lists of some of the most significant prisoner of war exchanges that have occurred since.