Gabriel Piterberg at LRB bookshop
Thursday
27 November at 7.00 pm
THE RETURNS OF ZIONISM
Myths, Politics and Scholarship in Israel
In
this original and wide-ranging study, Gabriel Piterberg examines the ideology
and literature behind the colonization of Palestine,
from the late nineteenth century to the present. Exploring Zionism's origins in
Central-Eastern European nationalism and settler movements, he shows how its
texts can be placed within a wider discourse of western colonization. Piterberg
revisits the work of Theodor Herzl, Gershom Scholem, Anita Shapira and David
Ben-Gurion, among other thinkers influential in the formation of the Zionist
myth, to break open prevailing views of Zionism. He demonstrates that it was in
fact unexceptional, expressing a consciousness and imagination typical of
colonial settler movement. Shaped by European ideological currents and the realities
of colonial life, Zionism constructed its own story as a unique and impregnable
one, in the process excluding the voices of an indigenous people - the
Palestinian Arabs.
About the Author
GABRIEL PITERBERG was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and grew up in Israel. He graduated at Tel Aviv University, where he majored in Middle East history
and political science (BA), and Middle East
and European history (MA). His D.Phil. in the history of the Ottoman Empire is
from the University
of Oxford. He taught at
the University of Durham, England, and Ben
Gurion University
of the Negev in Israel.
Piterberg now teaches at UCLA. He
writes and teaches on the history of the Ottoman Empire and the Mediterranean in the early modern period, and modern
themes like colonialism, Zionism, and Palestine/Israel. He writes for the New
Left Review and London Review of Books.
BOOK NOW AT: http://www.lrbshop.co.uk/product.php?productid=4499
The Returns of Zionism is available at all good bookshops and also at:
http://www.amazon.com/Returns-Zionism-Politics-Scholarship-Israel/dp/1844672603/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227539728&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Return-Zionism-Politics-Scholarship-Israel/dp/1844672603/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227539686&sr=8-1