Electrical Palestine : Capital and Technology from Empire to Nation / Fredrik Meiton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Meiton, Fredrik, Author.

Series:

California scholarship online.

California scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Electrification--Eretz Israel--History--20th century.

Electrification.

Electrification--Political aspects--Eretz Israel.

Jewish-Arab relations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (357 pages)

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Electricity is an integral part of everyday life-so integral that we rarely think of it as political. In Electrical Palestine, Fredrik Meiton illustrates how political power, just like electrical power, moves through physical materials whose properties govern its flow. At the dawn of the Arab-Israeli conflict, both kinds of power were circulated through the electric grid that was built by the Zionist engineer Pinhas Rutenberg in the period of British rule from 1917 to 1948. Drawing on new sources in Arabic, Hebrew, and several European languages, Electrical Palestine charts a story of rapid and uneven development that was greatly influenced by the electric grid and set the stage for the conflict between Arabs and Jews. Electrification, Meiton shows, was a critical element of Zionist state building. The outcome in 1948, therefore, of Jewish statehood and Palestinian statelessness was the result of a logic that was profoundly conditioned by the power system, a logic that has continued to shape the area until today.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Lists Of Tables And Illustrations

Abbreviations And Notes On Sources

Acknowledgments

Introduction. The Unalterable Order Of Electrical Palestine

1. Expert Revolutionary

2. Contentious Concession

3. The Politics Of Thin Circuitries

4. The Radiance of the Jewish National Home

5. Industrialization and Revolt

6. Electrical Jerusalem

7. Statehood and Statelessness

Conclusion. Electrical Palestine

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780520968486

0520968484

OCLC:

1038025610