Plowshares into Swords: From Zionism to Israel - Hardcover

Mayer, Arno J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1844672352 ISBN 13: 9781844672356

Publisher: Verso, 2008

Synopsis

This rich, authoritative history chronicles the Zionist Israeli quest from itsorigins in pre-Great War Europe. Plowshares Into Swords traces the development ofpolitical Zionism’s primal resolve to implant a state for Jews in aMiddle East of ever greater strategic importance. In it, Mayer provides newperspectives on key turning points as well as on such enduring issuesas the young country’s dire need for imperial protection, the oilimperative, the hidden ascendance of Jabotinsky’s martial andexpansionist canon, and reliance on the American Jewish and Christianevangelical lobbies. He examines, too, the post-colonial backlash against Westernsupremacy, the asymmetry of power between Israelis and Palestinians,the Zionist Israeli leaders’ studied prevarication on borders, and theemergence of political Judaism and political Islam.

Incorporatingreflections on founding violence, sovereignty, resistance, terror, andreligious politics, Plowshares into Swords is an absorbing, challenging narrative of Zionism and Israel in the context of world history.

About this title

About the Author

Arno Mayer is Professor Emeritus of European History at Princeton University. His many books include The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War, The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions, Plowshares into Swords: From Zionism to Israel and Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? The “Final Solution” in History.

From Publishers Weekly

The latest from professor and author Mayer (Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The "Final Solution" in History) is an exhaustive historical investigation into the origins and evolution of the Zionist movement, born in the late 19th Century with a mission to establish a Jewish state, and carried on in never-ending Arab-Israeli conflicts over the Holy Land. Mayer sheds much light on the history of the movement and the region while keeping an eye toward world events, and offers plenty of considered editorializing on policies and actions (like radical retaliation) taken by both sides. As these two groups struggle, drawing in the interest of world powers, Mayer highlights past downfalls and draws simple lessons suggesting that a one-state solution is within grasp. Though Mayer's research is thorough and his opinionated voice engaging, his delivery is erratic, switching topics distractedly and losing focus in copious rants and asides; if readers don't mind some whiplash, they'll find a great deal of intriguing information on the Holy Land's long-standing state of turmoil.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Verso
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1844672352
• ISBN 13: 9781844672356
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432