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The Struggle for Palestine by J.C. Hurewitz (162,000 words, 8 illustrations)
“This is a remarkable book. Amid the welter of literature on Palestine since 1917, The Struggle for Palestine stands out as a monument to intellectual honesty, fine scholarship, and objective presentation... [it] will remain an authoritative book on the history of Palestine for the years from 1936 to 1949.” — William Yale, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
“The book is outstanding for its unemotional and carefully documented approach... Here is an antidote to the usual partisan accounts that generate more heat than light. This is a fact-crammed autopsy on the corpse of the mandate... the book is unique and valuable.” — Roderic H. Davison, The American Historical Review
“The Struggle for Palestine will be an indispensable guide to understanding the future struggle of Israel... [Hurewitz] notes the excesses of Jewish terrorists and the maneuvers of Zionist politicians no less firmly than the bad faith of the Arabs, the inconsistency of the Americans, the double talk of the Russians, or the meanness and fat-headedness of the British... a work of major competence and distinction.” — Hal Lehrman, The New York Times
“This book, first published in 1950, has long been recognized as the best account of the Arab-Jewish conflict during the climacteric years 1936 to 1948. The vast amount of primary material and monograph literature published during the past three decades has done nothing to diminish its reputation. Indeed, the opening of the Israeli, American, and British archives has in general validated Hurewitz’s central conclusions... The enduring value of this book resides in two chief properties. First, the author had inside knowledge of the problem as a result of research in Palestine and wartime employment by the Office of Strategic Services and the intelligence branch of the Department of State. Secondly, he wrote neither as a moralist nor as an apologist but as a political scientist; hence the unusual emphasis placed on the social and economic analysis of the Arab and Jewish communities and on the interplay of local and international forces.” — Bernard Wasserstein, Middle Eastern Studies
“It is [a] masterly combination of insight and impartiality that gives his book its peculiar power and value.” — Walter C. Klein, Journal of Near Eastern Studies
“[A] noteworthy contribution to the clarification of the complicated story of the rise of Israel to national status.” — Milton Plesur, Jewish Social Studies
“This valuable addition to research in the Palestine question, is particularly welcome for its high level of scholarship and for its fine spirit of detachment. First hand documentary sources, Arabic and Hebrew as well as English, have been fully utilized; the presentation of the various points of view is unbiased by emotional involvement; the style is straightforward, unadorned by literary embellishment... Dr. Hurewitz has produced an outstanding piece of work, one which every student of the history of the development of the Middle East will keep beside as an accurate and’ exceptionally competent account of the main facts in the course of political events in Palestine during the recent decades.” — Isaac B. Berkson, Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society
“Mr. Hurewitz has produced a very full and well documented account of the developments that led to the withdrawal of the British from Palestine and the rise of the State of Israel, and in his treatment of the subject has shown himself far more objective than most of his predecessors.” — Albert M. Hyamson, International Affairs
“Mr. Hurewitz[’s] objectivity is never in doubt, and his book is the best practical history of modern Palestine yet found by this writer. It is an able and factual record of what happened. Every word has been carefully weighed, and the author has not sacrificed one iota of accuracy for the sake of the brilliant epigram or the facile generalization... His book now becomes an essential volume for all university and public libraries with Middle East sections, and for all persons with Middle East interests. One might safely predict that its objectivity and sanity will enhance its value as time goes on. There are few experts in this field with Mr. Hurewitz’s knowledge or self-discipline.” — Edwin Samuel, Middle East Journal
“This book is a detailed chronicle of Palestine politics from 1936 to 1947: that is, from the Arab revolt that caused Britain to declare the Palestine mandate ‘unworkable’ till after the British left Palestine following the U.N. decision to partition the country... The book is a compact, dense, yet easily written reference guide to a crucial period in Palestine history.” — Jewish Frontier
“The history of the British mandate over Palestine, from the time of the Balfour Declaration to the proclamation of Jewish statehood, is traced here in infinite detail and with the dispassionate prose of the scholar... J.C. Hurewitz takes no sides, defends no cause. Rather he strives to do what has so seldom been done — to tell the story of Palestine under British rule in terms of history rather than politics. He is successful.” — New York Herald Tribune
“The general reader... can join the scholar in welcoming Dr. Hurewitz’s happy combination of trustworthy information, valid interpretation and readable narrative.” — Saturday Review