A History of Modern Palestine
One Land, Two Peoples

Pappe, Ilan
Publisher:  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Year Published:  2004
Pages:  361pp   Price:  $26.95   ISBN:  0-521-68315-7
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX7058

A history of the people of Palestine.

Abstract: 
Pappe's history of Palestine is centred on the history of the people. It focuses on the men, women, and children, in addition to the political realities. The original book began with the Ottoman Empire in the mid-nineteenth century through to the negotiation of the Oslo peace accord. The second edition continues to include current affairs in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Pappe chooses not to separate the Palestinian view of modern history from the Zionist narrative, but to study the two together. He also looks at modernization from a different point of view; one that does not reject modernization theory but disagrees with the way it makes connections between parts of the process. He does not believe that a modernized society can be assumed to have a linear past, a present of Western technology and way-of-life, and a predictable future. He does not ignore the influence of Western involvement, but he does focus on how the country itself evolved.

After introducing the scope through which he will look at Palestinian history, the book is divided into nine chronological sections. Additional resources include historical photos, political and cultural maps from different time periods, a time line starting in 1699 with the Peace of Karlovitz and ending with the 2003 Palestinian election, and glossaries of both important names and important terms. The bibliography is useful in providing sources for further reading and divided into sections for titles in English, Hebrew, Arabic, German and French.

This is a people's history, not a history of the elite. "The elite left behind written evidence of their world, which helped historians to construct the elites' history as if it were Palestine's history." Pappe intends to set the record straight.

[Abstract by Mia Manns]



Table of Contents

Introduction: A New Look at Modern Palestine and Israel

Part I: Fin de Siècle (1856 - 1900: Social Tranquillity and Political Drama
The Rural Landscape and Its People
Urban Palestine and its Society
A Society without Politics
Globalization of the Local Economy
The Political Economy of 'Modern Palestine' in the 1880s
Invading Civil Society: The Making of the Modern Ottoman State (1876 - 1900)
End of an Era: Rural Chieftains and the A'ayan
New Beginnings and New Influences
The Zionist Impetus
A New Crusade: Templars, Colonists and Profiteers

Part II: Between Tyranny and War (1900 - 1918)
Palestine in the Last Years of Abdul Hamid (1900 - 1908)
The Arrival of Zionism
Palestine in the Aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution (1908 - 1916)
Palestine in the First World War

Part III: The Mandatory State: Colonialism, Nationalization and Cohabitation
Allenby's Palestine
The Nationalization of the Cities (1918 - 1920)
The End of 'Southern Syria'
Early Years of the Mandate (1920 - 1929)
Where Politics and Society Met: The 1929 Watershed
The Making of the Zionist Enclave (1929 - 1936)
The Pauperization of Rural Palestine (1929 - 1936)
The 1936 Revolt
The 1939 White Paper
Encountering Nationalism: The Urge for Cohabitation
Palestine in the Second World War

Part IV: Between Nakbah and Independence: The 1948 War
The UNSCOP Days
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (March - May 1948)
The Palestine War (May 1948 - January 1949)
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (May 1948 - January 1949)

Part V: The Age of Partition (1948 - 1967)
Dislocation and Dispossession
Patterns of Response: Guerilla Fighters, Isolation and Co-optation
The Suez Campaign
Revolutionizing Politics: The Resistance Movement Institutionalized
The Bogus PLO (1964 - 1968)
Subduing Israeli Politics: Institutionalizing a State
The Marginalization of 'Arabism' in Israeli Society
In Limbo: The Bedouin and the Druzes

Part VI; Greater Israel and Occupied Palestine: The Rise and Fall of High Politics (1967 - 1987)
The War of June 1967
Struggle for Survival: Palestinian Refugees after the 1967 War
Popular Uprising, Guerilla Warfare and Terrorism (1968 - 1972)
The Occupation (1967 - 1982)
The Settlement and Internal Debate in Israel (1967 - 1973)
Survival Under Occupation
Pax Americana, War and Peace (1973 - 1977)
The Question of Borders: The Jordanian Option and Greater Israel
The Mizrahi Revolution
The Begin Revolution
Navigating between Agendas: The Politics of Palestine (1967 - 1987)
The War in Lebanon and its Aftermath (1982 - 1987)
Breaches in the Wall: The Polarization of Israeli Society
Palestinians in Israel (1967 - 1987)
The Road to Intifada

Part VII: The Uprising and its Political Consequences (1987 - 1996)
Gender and Class
The Oslo Process and After
In the Shadow of Politics: Religion, Nationalism and Multiculturalism

Part VIII: A Post-Zionist Moment of Grace?
The Academic Debate - The Post-Zionist Scholars
The Political Background
The Academic Background
De-Zionizing Other Periods
Post-Zionist Poetry, Pop Music and Literature
Post-Zionist Theatre and Films
The Post-Zionist Media

Part IX: The Suicidal Track: The Death of Oslo and the Road to Perdition
The Second Intifada
The Desperate Tilt to Martyrdom
The Demise of Post-Zionism

Postscript: The Post-Arafat Era and the New Sharon Age

Subject Headings

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