Review
"...marked by clear, readable prose that should be the envy of many a contemporary historian. Pappe's latest work will inspire some readers and infuriate many others. He is an engaged historian, a notion that may strike some as a contradiction in terms. He has a points of view. He also possesses the intellectual rigor and honesty to set it out clearly as a voice among many that must be heard." The Toronto Star
"...here, for the first time, is a textbook on Palestine that narrates the real story as it happened -- a non-Zionist version of Zionism...To its credit, Cambridge University Press has published Pappe's pioneering and highly accessible work as an authoritative history. This means that the 'debate' over Israel's origins is ending, regardless of what the empire's apologists say." The New Statesman
"Throughout the reading, I was filled with admiration for [Pappe's] ability to grasp the core issue and toss out the chaff. And yet in his introduction he is resolutely demanding to be read as a pro-Palestinian Israeli historian, i.e. rejecting the demand for objective universality." Haaretz
"In this well-researched and challenging book, Israeli academic Pappe traces developments in Palestine from the early 1800s to the 1948 establishment of Israel through to the present conflict... The author utilizes sources in Hebrew, Arabic, and several Western languages to write a scholarly, yet accessible history. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries." Library Journal
Book Description
Ilan Pappe's book is the story of Palestine, a land inhabited by two peoples, and two national identities. It begins with the Ottomans in the early 1800s, the reign of Muhammad Ali, and traces a path through the arrival of the early Zionists at the end of that century, through the British mandate at the beginning of the twentieth century, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and the subsequent wars and conflicts which culminated in the intifadas of 1987 and 2000. While these events provide the background to the narrative and explain the construction of Zionist and Palestinian nationalism, at center stage are those who lived through these times, men and women, children, peasants, workers, town-dwellers, Jews and Arabs. It is a story of coexistence and cooperation, as well as oppression, occupation, and exile. Ilan Pappe is well known as a revisionist historian of Palestine and a political commentator on the Israel-Palestine conflict. His book is a unique contribution to the history of this troubled land which all those concerned with developments is the Middle East will be compelled to read. Ilan Pappe teaches politics at Haifa University in Israel. He has written extensively on the politics of the Middle East, and is well known for his revisionist interpretation of Israel's past and as a critic of Israel's policies towards the Palestinians. His books include The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947-1951 (Taurlls, 1992) and The Israeli-Palestine Question (Routledge, 1999).
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