The Making of Modern Zionism: The Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State - Paperback

An Expanded Edition of a Classic Intellectual History of Zionism

An expanded edition of a classic intellectual history of Zionism, now covering the rise of religious Zionism since the 1970s

For eighteen centuries pious Jews had prayed for the return to Jerusalem, but only in the revolutionary atmosphere of nineteenth-century Europe was this yearning transformed into an active political movement: Zionism. In The Making of Modern Zionism, the distinguished political scientist Shlomo Avineri rejects the common view that Zionism was solely a reaction to anti-Semitism and persecution. Rather, he sees it as part of the universal quest for self-determination.

Intellectual Profiles of Zionism's Major Thinkers

In sharply-etched intellectual profiles of Zionism's major thinkers from Moses Hess to Theodore Herzl and from Vladimir Jabotinsky to David Ben Gurion, Avineri traces the evolution of this quest from its intellectual origins in the early nineteenth century to the establishment of the State of Israel. In an expansive new epilogue, he tracks the changes in Israeli society and politics since 1967 which have strengthened the more radical nationalist and religious trends in Zionism at the expense of its more liberal strains.

Understanding a Revolutionary Idea

The result is a book that enables us to understand, as perhaps never before, one of the truly revolutionary ideas of our time. This comprehensive analysis examines the transformation of religious yearning into political action, exploring how Zionism emerged as part of the broader nineteenth-century European movement toward national self-determination.