Full name: 1949: The First Israelis

Author: Tom Segev Year: 1986 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: History Culture: Israel Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780805058963 0805058966

The founding of Israel in 1948--one of the seminal events of the century--offers a heroic narrative with few parallels in modern history. In 1949, a controversial best-seller in Israel, Tom Segev draws on thousands of declassified documents along with personal diaries and correspondence to reconstruct the unvarnished story of Israel's first year. Segev reveals the lofty aspirations that guided the state's leaders as well as the darker side of the Zionist utopia: the friction between the early settlers and the immigrants, the lack of good-faith negotiations with the Arabs; the clash between religious and secular factions; the daily collision of the Zionist myth with the severe realities of life in the new state. Unflinching in its observations, this bold chronicle is indispensible for understanding the dilemmas that continue to confront--and divide--Israeli society. Similar books: The Seventh Million by Tom Segev Righteous Victims by Benny Morris 1948 by Benny Morris The Yellow Wind by David Grossman 1967 by Tom Segev One Palestine, Complete by Tom Segev How Israel Lost by Richard Ben Cramer The Iron Wall by Avi Shlaim The Accidental Empire by Gershom Gorenberg A History of Modern Palestine by Ilan Pappe A History of Israel by Howard M. Sachar Battleground by Samuel M. Katz The Lion's Gate by Steven Pressfield My Promised Land by Ari Shavit The Gun and the Olive Branch by David Hirst The Balfour Declaration by Jonathan Schneer Anonymous Soldiers by Bruce Hoffman The Eve of Destruction by Howard Blum Israel's Wars, 1947-1993 by Ahron Bregman A Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman