Product Description

Discusses the European background, the prehistory of the movement, five decades of Zionist activities, and ends with the establishement of the state of Israel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1305634 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 639 pages

Review
A well-documented history of Zionism culled from "the shelves of the Zionist Archives in Jerusalem, which stretch for two miles." Though Zionism as a political movement dates from Herzl's 1896 Der Judenstaat, Laqueur properly begins with the Jewish question after the French Revolution. He points out that anti-Semitism rose and fell according to the ups and downs of the business cycle, noting, for example, that during the early-19th century expansion of world capitalism the Jews of Western Europe gained social acceptance and tended toward assimilation. "Could it be," Laqueur asks, "that modern anti-Semitism was a socio-economic phenomenon? . . . sometimes the coincidence seems striking. . . but such explanations leave question marks. . . ." He takes for granted the existence of Zionism and anti-Semitism and assumes the first is a sound response to the second; and in an anti-Marxist polemic Kautsky's historical treatment of the Jewish question is misrepresented. The transition to the Jewish state is uncritically documented with a good deal of fascinating material: Herzl's clumsy efforts at winning the Sultan's favor by offers of fantastic loans and a Turkish university where students would be safe from "dangerous revolutionary ideals," and his deal with the Czar, promising that Zionism would collaborate with the autocracy. There is also a thorough discussion of the Palestinians from the point of view of various Zionist political perspectives, although the Palestinians' status as the Jews of the Middle East is an irony not noted. Western imperialism in the Middle East and Zionism's cooperation with it are not mentioned though founders like Ben Gurion were never shy on this point and in fact assumed that this collusion was a precondition for a Zionist state. The history goes up to 1948: to have gone further Laqueur would have had to resolve the questions he begs, "What is a Jew?" and "What is anti-Semitism?" (Kirkus Reviews)

From the Inside Flap
Discusses the European background, the prehistory of the movement, five decades of Zionist activities, and ends with the establishement of the state of Israel.

About the Author
Walter Laqueur, one of the world's foremost historians, was born in Breslau in 1921. He divides his time between London, Israel and Washington, where he is a director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is the author of numerous works, including 'Generation Exodus' (also I.B.Tauris).

Customer Reviews

Richard A. Macales, columnist, "Mac's Facts"
As one of the century's great historians, how fortunate we are that the German-born Laqueur spent his formative scholarly years in Eretz Israel as a journalist and researcher. This landmark work is very sympathetic to religious Orthodoxy and its significant relationship in the evolution of modern political Zionism. Its strength is in the study of religious and political Zionism within the European milieu.

A Classic
If you must read only one book on Zionism, let this be it. Walter Laqueur, internationally renowned historian, has created a masterpiece that has stood the test of time (it was originally written over 30 years ago!), and has become one of the standard works on the subject, alongside Shlomo Avineri's The Making of Modern Zionism and Hertzberg's The Zionist Idea.

The book is exactly what it says it is-a history of Zionism from the French Revolution to the establishment of the State of Israel, making use of a wide range of primary and secondary sources in various languages.

Laqueur gives a rich and penetrating description of the Jewish communities in both Western and Eastern Europe, describing the various forces that tugged at the Jews during this period - anti-semitism, an increased desire to assimilate on the one hand and a growing sense of self-pride in Jewish heritage on the other. It was against this background that Zionism burst onto the scene in the late 19th century.

Laqueur gives an interesting, at times funny and at times tragic, of the Zionist movement and its members as they struggled to achieve their goals of Jewish self-determination in the former Land of Israel against great odds, sometimes achieving great success (the Balfour Declaration), and sometimes facing disasterous crises (the Holocaust and the destruction of European Jewry). Laqueur demonstrates that all this was done while the Zionists were a minority, with a largely indifferent and even hostile Jewish community in some countries (especially in Britain and Germany, although they enjoyed widespread support in Eastern Europe), refusing to foot the bill for what seemed a fantastic project at the time.

The book is divided into three sections-the first describing the background to the appearance of the Zionist movement and its activities until between the two World Wars.

The second section gives a description of both the various trends in the Zionist movement (Revisionist and Socialist), as well as the obstacles they faced, such as Arab opposition to Zionism (in the chapter 'The Unseen Question') as well as those who objected to Zionism in principle, and forsaw a different future for the Jews and saw Zionism as hampering it.

The third section covers the rest of the story, as it were, until the establishment of the state.

In sum, this book is an informative, well-written and fair-minded work on a sensitive subject, written by a master scholar.

I highly recommend it.

Definitive history
Laquer's History of Zionism is an indispensable work about the origins of the Jewish state. Wherever you stand on Israel, here is a thought provoking and well-researched text that is definitive on the subject. If you are someone who dislikes Israel, you should at least read it to understand how Israel developed and learn about Zionist self-perception.