Struggle and Survival in Palestine

Too often, the study of Israel/Palestine has focused on elite actors and major events. Struggle and Survival in Palestine/Israel takes advantage of new sources about everyday life and the texture of changes on the ground to put more than two dozen human faces on the past and present of the region. With contributions from a leading cast of scholars across disciplines, the stories here are drawn from a variety of sources, from stories passed down through generations to family archives, interviews, and published memoirs. As these personal narratives are transformed into social biographies, they explore how the protagonists were embedded in but also empowered by their social and historical contexts. This wide-ranging and accessible volume brings a human dimension to a conflict-ridden history, emphasizing human agency, introducing marginal voices alongside more well-known ones, defying "typical" definitions of Israelis and Palestinians, and, ultimately, redefining how we understand both "struggle" and "survival" in a troubled region.


About the Author
Mark LeVine is Professor of History at UC Irvine. He is the author of An Impossible Peace, Overthrowing Geography (UC Press, 2005) and Heavy Metal Islam. Gershon Shafir is Professor of Sociology at UC San Diego and Director of its Institution for International, Comparative and Area Studies. He is the author of Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, National Insecurity and Human Rights (UC Press) and Being Israeli, winner of MESA's Hourani Award.