Ben-Gurion : Father of Modern Israel / Anita Shapira.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shapira, Anita, Author.

Contributor:

Berris, Anthony, translator.

Series:

Jewish Lives

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ben-Gurion, David, 1886-1973.

Ben-Gurion, David.

Prime ministers--Israel--Biography.

Prime ministers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

An insightful study of the inner life of the Zionist leader responsible for the creation of the state of Israel David Ben-Gurion cast a great shadow during his lifetime, and his legacy continues to be sharply debated to this day. There have been many books written about the life and accomplishments of the Zionist icon and founder of modern Israel, but this new biography by eminent Israeli historian Anita Shapira strives to get to the core of the complex man who would become the face of the new Jewish nation. Shapira tells the Ben-Gurion story anew, focusing especially on the period after 1948, during the first years of statehood. As a result of her extensive research and singular access to Ben-Gurion's personal archives, the author provides fascinating and original insights into his personal qualities and those that defined his political leadership. As Shapira writes, "Ben-Gurion liked to argue that history is made by the masses, not individuals. But just as Lenin brought the Bolshevik Revolution into the world and Churchill delivered a fighting Britain, so with Ben-Gurion and the Jewish state. He knew how to create and exploit the circumstances that made its birth possible." Shapira's portrait reveals the flesh-and-blood man who more than anyone else realized the Israeli state.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

1. Plonsk

2. "I Found the Homeland Landscape,"

3. Exile and Return

4. Labor Leader

5. From Labor Leader to National Leader

6. Days of Hope, Days of Despair

7. On the Verge of Statehood

8. "We Hereby Declare . . . ,"

9. Helmsman of the State

10. Ben-Gurion Against Ben-Gurion

11. Decline

Epilogue

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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

ISBN:

0-300-18273-2

OCLC:

894506975