[ecrea] NEW TITLE: Invention of the Jewish People NIP - Shlomo Sand

>THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
>
>SHLOMO SAND
>
>Revised and with a new afterword
>
>Published July 5th 2010
>
>------------------------------------
>
>***SHORTLISTED FOR THE JEWISH QUARTERLY-WINGATE PRIZE 2010***
>------------------------------------
>
>Shlomo Sand has written a remarkable book.  In 
>cool, scholarly prose he has, quite simply, 
>normalised Jewish history.  In place of the 
>implausible myth of a unique nation with a 
>special destiny  expelled, isolated, wandering 
>and finally restored to its rightful home  he 
>has reconstructed the history of the Jews and 
>convincingly reintegrated that history into the 
>general history of humankind. The self-serving 
>and mostly imaginary Jewish past that has done 
>so much to provoke conflict in the present is 
>revealed, like the past of so many other 
>nations, to be largely an invention.  Anyone 
>interested in understanding the contemporary 
>Middle East should read this book.  TONY JUDT
>
>  I could not have gone on living in Israel 
> without writing this book.  I dont think books 
> can change the world  but when the world 
> begins to change, it searches for different books.  SHLOMO SAND
>
>------------------------------------
>
>After sending shockwaves around the world, and 
>being translated into over a dozen languages, 
>the international bestseller is now available in 
>paperback. This new edition contains a brand new 
>afterword in which the author responds in detail 
>to the main arguments of his critics.
>
>Few modern conflicts are as attached to ancient 
>history as that of Israel and Palestine.  Shlomo 
>Sands measured and analytical research into the 
>biblical origin of the Jewish people - their 
>slavery, two exiles and (continuing) journey to 
>the Promised Land - finds no record of any 
>Jewish exile.  Sands explosive and inescapable 
>conclusion is that without exile, there is no right to return.
>
>Sands investigation uncovers a false 
>historiography based on surviving fragments of 
>Jewish and Christian religious memory.  He finds 
>early Rabbis and 19th century Zionist Scholars 
>responsible for the construction of a continuous 
>genealogy for the Jewish people.  Israel, states 
>Shlomo, has deliberately forgotten its history, 
>and replaced it with a myth. The disparity 
>between what my research suggested about the 
>history of the Jewish people and the way that 
>history is commonly understood  not only within 
>Israel but in the larger world - shocked me as 
>much as it shocked my readers he writes in the books preface.
>
>Sands research attributes the Jewish diaspora 
>to early Judaist evangelism across North Africa, 
>Southern Europe and the Middle East, not a 
>biological lineage.  The biblical narrative of 
>Jewish exile and enforced dispersal already 
>discredited, Sand finds present-day Palestinian 
>Arabs to be the true heirs of the biblical Jews.
>
>There have been few significant developments in 
>national history over the past 60 years.  The 
>facts that have emerged in Shlomo Sands thesis 
>face any honest historian with fundamental questions.
>
>------------------------------------
>
>With reviews ranging from rapturous to 
>apoplectic, the book caused a storm on its 
>release in the UK last year, with Shlomo Sand 
>speaking to packed out audiences at a series of 
>explosive events. THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH 
>PEOPLE was also chosen as a book of the year, 
>2009, by Eric Hobsbawm (OBSERVER), Terry 
>Eagleton (TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT) and Simon 
>Schama, who had previously called the book 
>self-dramatising and sensationalist in the FINANCIAL TIMES.
>
>----------------------------------
>
>
>Praise for THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
>
>  Israels declaration of independence states 
> that the Jewish people arose in the Land of 
> Israel and was exiled from its homeland.  Every 
> Israeli school child is taught that this 
> happened during the period of Roman rule, in 70 
> CE.  The nation remained loyal to its land, to 
> which it began to return after two millennia of 
> exile. Wrong, says the historian Shlomo Sand, 
> in one of the most fascinating and challenging 
> books published here in a long time.  There 
> never was a Jewish people, only a Jewish 
> religion, and the exile also never happened  
> hence there was no return.  - Tom Segev, HAARETZ
>
>Shlomo Sand's THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH 
>PEOPLE is both a welcome and, in the case of 
>Israel, much needed exercise in the dismantling 
>of nationalist historical myth and a plea for an 
>Israel that belongs equally to all its 
>inhabitants. Perhaps books combining passion and 
>erudition dont change political situations, but 
>if they did, this one would count as a landmark 
>Eric Hobshawm, OBSERVER, BOOKS OF THE YEAR: 
><http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/22/books-of-the-year-2009>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/22/books-of-the-year-2009
>
>A formidable polemic against claims that Israel 
>has a moral right to define itself as an 
>explicitly and exclusively Jewish society, in 
>which non-Jews , such as Palestino-Israelis, are 
>culturally and politically marginalised. Max 
>Hastings, SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE: 
><http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article6912556.ece>http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article6912556.ece
>
>Sand takes on a formidable tradition in 
>claiming that moral validity in the Middle East 
>needs good history, and no discussion of the 
>region any longer seems complete without 
>acknowledgement of his book. INDEPENDENT ON 
>SUNDAY, BEST HISTORY BOOKS OF 2009: 
><http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/best-history-books-of-2009-first-came-the-doomandgloom-pillaging-ndash-then-the-raging-battle-between-wainscotting-and-marble-1832803.html>http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/best-history-books-of-2009-first-came-the-doomandgloom-pillaging-ndash-then-the-raging-battle-between-wainscotting-and-marble-1832803.html
>
>I am one of many Jews who would agree with Sand 
>that a decisive factor in the future of Israel 
>will be its capacity to be far more attentive to 
>the narratives and rights of its Palestinian and 
>other non-Jewish citizens. Jonathan Wittenberg, 
>GUARDIAN: 
><http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/09/invention-jewish-people-sand-review>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/09/invention-jewish-people-sand-review
>
>
>------------------------------------
>
>SHLOMO SAND is a Jewish scholar and historian 
>based at the University of Tel Aviv. His book, 
>The Invention of the Jewish People, has been 
>translated into more than a dozen languages and 
>won a number of awards, including Frances coveted Aujourdhui Award.
>
>Find out more about the book and events at 
><http://inventionofthejewishpeople.com/>http://inventionofthejewishpeople.com/
>------------------------------------
>
>ISBN: 978 1 84467 623 1 /£9.99 / $16.95 / Paperback / 356 pages
>
>------------------------------------
>
>THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE is available from all good bookshops and:
>
><http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/sand_shlomo_invention_of_the_jewish_people.shtml>http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/sand_shlomo_invention_of_the_jewish_people.shtml
>
>UK:
>
><http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781844676231/The-Invention-of-the-Jewish-People>http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781844676231/The-Invention-of-the-Jewish-People
>
>http://www.amazon.co.uk/Invention-Jewish-People-Shlomo-Sand/dp/1844676234/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1280508631&sr=1-1
>
>
>US:
><http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Jewish-People-Shlomo-Sand/dp/1844676234/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280508676&sr=8-11>http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Jewish-People-Shlomo-Sand/dp/1844676234/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280508676&sr=8-11
>
>
>----------------------------------------
>
>
>

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