Plowshares into Swords: From Zionism to Israel

by Arno J. Mayer

Overview

A critical history of Israel and the Arab–Israeli conflict

Eminent historian Arno J. Mayer traces the thinkers, leaders, and shifting geopolitical contexts that shaped the founding and development of the Israeli state. He recovers for posterity internal critics such as the philosopher Martin Buber, who argued for peaceful coexistence with the Palestinian Arabs. “A sense of limits is the better part of valour,” Mayer insists. Plowshares into Swords explores Israel’s indefinite deferral of the “Arab Question,” the strategic thinking behind the building of settlements and border walls, and the endurance of Palestinian resistance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789604085
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	01/05/2021
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	890 KB

About the Author

Arno Mayer is Professor Emeritus of European History at Princeton University. His many books include The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War, The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions, Plowshares into Swords: From Zionism to Israel and Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? The “Final Solution” in History.

Table of Contents

Preface viii

Prolegomenon 1

1 The Imperial Context: 1890 to the First World War 89

2 Prefiguration: The 1920s 105

3 Gathering Storms 139

4 Realignments 162

5 Collision Courses 194

6 The Cold War: Israel in the World 237

7 The Iron Diplomatic Wall 301

8 The Wages of Hubris 343

Bibliography 411

Index 423

Editorial Reviews

In Plowshares into Swords, Arno Mayer gives a sweeping and often illuminating overview of the story of Zionism.”
—Geoffrey Wheatcroft, New Statesman

From the Publisher