The Invention of the Land of Israel
From Holy Land to Homeland
Published on 20. November 2012
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-84467-946-1 (ISBN)
Description
What is a homeland and when does it become a national territory? Why have so many people been willing to die for such places throughout the twentieth century? What is the essence of the Promised Land? Following the acclaimed and controversial The Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the mysterious sacred land that has become the site of the longest-running national struggle of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The Invention of the Land of Israel deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the Holy Land and the prejudices that continue to suffocate it. Sand's account dissects the concept of "historical right" and tracks the creation of the modern concept of the "Land of Israel" by nineteenth-century Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Zionists. This invention, he argues, not only facilitated the colonization of the Middle East and the establishment of the State of Israel; it is also threatening the existence of the Jewish state today.
The Invention of the Land of Israel deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the Holy Land and the prejudices that continue to suffocate it. Sand's account dissects the concept of "historical right" and tracks the creation of the modern concept of the "Land of Israel" by nineteenth-century Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Zionists. This invention, he argues, not only facilitated the colonization of the Middle East and the establishment of the State of Israel; it is also threatening the existence of the Jewish state today.
Reviews / Votes
Anyone interested in understanding the contemporary Middle East should read this book. -- Tony Judt, In praise of <i>The Invention of the Jewish People</i> Perhaps books combining passion and erudition don't change political situations, but if they did, this one would count as a landmark. -- Eric Hobsbawm, In praise of <i>The Invention of the Jewish People</i> A thought-provoking, readable, and important work. * Publisher's Weekly * ... there is much to enjoy and learn in the evidence in the potentially incendiary material [Shlomo Sand] assembles here. * Electronic Intifada * [Sand] critically consider the ways in which the Zionist colonization of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel have been justified by claims of ancestral lands, historical rights, and millennia-old national yearnings, all of which he proceeds to critically undermine as either justifiable reasons for mastery over the land of Palestine/Israel or even representative of longstanding mass Jewish aspirations. * Book News * This groundbreaking new historical work from a highly controversial author undoes the myth of the Jewish people's historical right to the 'Land of Israel.' * SirReadaLot.org *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
635 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84467-946-1 (9781844679461)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
09/2013
Verso Books
€33.00
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