The Rise of the Individual in 1950s Israel: A Challenge to Collectivism (The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies) - Softcover

Rozin, Orit

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1611680816 ISBN 13: 9781611680812

Publisher: Brandeis University Press, 2011

Synopsis

In this sharply argued volume, Orit Rozin reveals the flaws in the conventional account of Israeli society in the 1950s, which portrayed the Israeli public as committed to a collectivist ideology. In fact, major sectors of Israeli society espoused individualism and rejected the state-imposed collectivist ideology. Rozin draws on archival, legal, and media sources to analyze the attitudes of black-market profiteers, politicians and judges, middle-class homemakers, and immigrants living in transit camps and rural settlements. Part of a refreshing trend in recent Israeli historiography to study the voices, emotions, and ideas of ordinary people, Rozin’s book provides an important corrective to much extant scholarly literature on Israel’s early years.

About this title

About the Author:

ORIT ROZIN is a lecturer in the department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University.

Review:

"Rozin makes an important contribution to understanding how Israel moved from a society that emphasized national and communal needs first, to one that gradually allowed average Israelis to seek--and expect the state to grant--individual freedoms that steadily led to a rising standard of living and personal fulfillment. . . . A major contribution to Israeli social history. . . . Highly recommended."-- "Choice"

"[A] work of a cultural, social, and to an extent, political history, which shines methodologically in its critical discourse analysis. . . As much as it is a book about the rise of the individual in 1950s Israel, it is also a revisionist study of an era commonly remembered (and arguably mystified) by Israelis as extremely collectivist in ethos."-- "H-JUDAIC"

"Rozin's book is a very useful source of well-collected information on the culture of austerity in early Israel, drawn from the period's newspapers, speeches, testimonies, and government records."-- "Israel Studies Review"

"The numerous primary sources that this book includes, showing the stereotyping and racism employed by the elite in Israel against the immigrants, makes this book a major asset and important work for understanding Israeli society."-- "Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online"

About this edition

• Publisher: Brandeis University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1611680816
• ISBN 13: 9781611680812
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 276