Struggle and Survival in Palestine/Israel

Mark LeVine, Gershon Shafir, Mark LeVine, Gershon Shafir

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780520262522
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520953901
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

Too often, the study of Israel/Palestine has focused on elite actors and major events. Struggle and Survival in Palestine/Israel takes advantage of new sources about everyday life and the texture of changes on the ground to put more than two dozen human faces on the past and present of the region. With contributions from a leading cast of scholars across disciplines, the stories here are drawn from a variety of sources, from stories passed down through generations to family archives, interviews, and published memoirs. As these personal narratives are transformed into social biographies, they explore how the protagonists were embedded in but also empowered by their social and historical contexts. This wide-ranging and accessible volume brings a human dimension to a conflict-ridden history, emphasizing human agency, introducing marginal voices alongside more well-known ones, defying "typical" definitions of Israelis and Palestinians, and, ultimately, redefining how we understand both "struggle" and "survival" in a troubled region.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction: Social Biographies in Making Sense of History
• Part One: Voices of the Ottoman Past: From the Mountains to the Sea
• Part Two: From Empire to Empire: Palestine under British Rule
• Part Three: A State Is Born A Nation is Dispersed
• Part Four: A Land Occupied and Liberated
• Part Five: An Impossible Peace, a Shared Future?
• List of Contributors
• Index