Synopses & Reviews
The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has lasted over a century. James L. Gelvin's account of that conflict, from the first glimmerings of national consciousness among Jews and Ottoman Palestinians to the present, offers a compelling, accessible and up-to-the-moment introduction for students and general readers. The book makes no attempt to be encyclopedic in coverage. It is rather an interpretive, thematically composed essay, set within the framework of global history. Now in a revised edition, Gelvin's award-winning book takes the reader through the 2006 Summer War and its aftermath.
Review
"Gelvin elucidates the broad trends in the hundred-year conflict, making them intelligible through eye-catching examples and apt quotations.... In all, The Israel-Palestine Conflict is an accessible and thorough study from which students and the educated public can benefit. It is value added to a crowded field." - Journal of Palestine Studies (praise for the first edition)
Review
A historian of the modern Middle East, Gelvin is well placed to examine the early development of both Zionist and Palestinian national movements...The book provides a challenging comparison of two ostensibly opposed nationalisms, a comparison which offers food for thought..." - Georger Wilkes, Journal of Jewish Studies
Review
"The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War is a lively read, written by a well-informed specialist on Syria... I might mention that the photographs are excellent-the best that I have seen in a book of this kind... The Israeli-Palestine Conflict is an accessible and thoughtful study...It is value added to a crowded field." - Ann M. Lesch, Journal of Palestine Studies
Review
"Gelvin's volume is distinguished from the others cited above because it is concise; written in a witty and engaging style; profusely illustrated with photographs, facsimiles of stamps, and maps; and successfully uses poetry and other cultural materials to inform the political narrative. Most importantly, and this remedies the biggest flaw of all the other existing texts, Gelvin's book is theoretically informed without being jargonistic; and it is equally skeptical of the nationalist mythologies of both parties to the conflict without indulging in false moral equivalencies." - Joel Beinin, H-Net
Review
"If anybody could be expected to make sense of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in less than 300 pages, Gelvin could. With this book, he has succeeded." - Mark Sedgwick, Terrorism and Political Violence
Synopsis
An engaging, interpretive, thematically composed introduction to this intractable conflict for students and general readers.
Synopsis
James Gelvin's account of the Israel-Palestine conflict, from the first glimmerings of national consciousness among Jews and Ottoman Palestinians to the present, offers a compelling and up-to-the-moment introduction for students and general readers. It is written as an interpretive, thematically composed essay, set within the framework of global history.
About the Author
James L. Gelvin is Professor in History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on nationalism and the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is the author of Divided Loyalties: Nationalism and Mass Politics in Syria at the Close of Empire (1998), and The Modern Middle East: A History (2004).
Table of Contents
1. The land and its lure; 2. Cultures of nationalism; 3. Zionism and the colonization of Palestine; 4. World War I and the Palestine mandate; 5. From nationalism in Palestine to Palestinian nationalism; 6. From the Great Revolt through the 1948 War; 7. Zionism and Palestinian nationalism: a closer look; 8. The Arab-Israeli conflict; 9. The Palestinian National movement comes of age; 10. Coming full circle: Oslo and its aftermath.