A State at Any Cost

A State at Any Cost PDF Author: Tom Segev
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429951842
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 816

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Book Description
2019 National Jewish Book Award Finalist "[A] fascinating biography . . . a masterly portrait of a titanic yet unfulfilled man . . . this is a gripping study of power, and the loneliness of power." —The Economist As the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion long ago secured his reputation as a leading figure of the twentieth century. Determined from an early age to create a Jewish state, he thereupon took control of the Zionist movement, declared Israel’s independence, and navigated his country through wars, controversies and remarkable achievements. And yet Ben-Gurion remains an enigma—he could be driven and imperious, or quizzical and confounding. In this definitive biography, Israel’s leading journalist-historian Tom Segev uses large amounts of previously unreleased archival material to give an original, nuanced account, transcending the myths and legends that have accreted around the man. Segev’s probing biography ranges from the villages of Poland to Manhattan libraries, London hotels, and the hills of Palestine, and shows us Ben-Gurion’s relentless activity across six decades. Along the way, Segev reveals for the first time Ben-Gurion’s secret negotiations with the British on the eve of Israel’s independence, his willingness to countenance the forced transfer of Arab neighbors, his relative indifference to Jerusalem, and his occasional “nutty moments”—from UFO sightings to plans for Israel to acquire territory in South America. Segev also reveals that Ben-Gurion first heard about the Holocaust from a Palestinian Arab acquaintance, and explores his tempestuous private life, including the testimony of four former lovers. The result is a full and startling portrait of a man who sought a state “at any cost”—at times through risk-taking, violence, and unpredictability, and at other times through compromise, moderation, and reason. Segev’s Ben-Gurion is neither a saint nor a villain but rather a historical actor who belongs in the company of Lenin or Churchill—a twentieth-century leader whose iron will and complex temperament left a complex and contentious legacy that we still reckon with today.

A State at Any Cost

A State at Any Cost PDF Author: Tom Segev
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429951842
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 816

Get Book

Book Description
2019 National Jewish Book Award Finalist "[A] fascinating biography . . . a masterly portrait of a titanic yet unfulfilled man . . . this is a gripping study of power, and the loneliness of power." —The Economist As the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion long ago secured his reputation as a leading figure of the twentieth century. Determined from an early age to create a Jewish state, he thereupon took control of the Zionist movement, declared Israel’s independence, and navigated his country through wars, controversies and remarkable achievements. And yet Ben-Gurion remains an enigma—he could be driven and imperious, or quizzical and confounding. In this definitive biography, Israel’s leading journalist-historian Tom Segev uses large amounts of previously unreleased archival material to give an original, nuanced account, transcending the myths and legends that have accreted around the man. Segev’s probing biography ranges from the villages of Poland to Manhattan libraries, London hotels, and the hills of Palestine, and shows us Ben-Gurion’s relentless activity across six decades. Along the way, Segev reveals for the first time Ben-Gurion’s secret negotiations with the British on the eve of Israel’s independence, his willingness to countenance the forced transfer of Arab neighbors, his relative indifference to Jerusalem, and his occasional “nutty moments”—from UFO sightings to plans for Israel to acquire territory in South America. Segev also reveals that Ben-Gurion first heard about the Holocaust from a Palestinian Arab acquaintance, and explores his tempestuous private life, including the testimony of four former lovers. The result is a full and startling portrait of a man who sought a state “at any cost”—at times through risk-taking, violence, and unpredictability, and at other times through compromise, moderation, and reason. Segev’s Ben-Gurion is neither a saint nor a villain but rather a historical actor who belongs in the company of Lenin or Churchill—a twentieth-century leader whose iron will and complex temperament left a complex and contentious legacy that we still reckon with today.

Ben-Gurion

Ben-Gurion PDF Author: Shimʿon Peres
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
ISBN: 0805242821
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
A revelatory portrait of Israel's first prime minister, written by its current president, includes coverage of his support of the United Nations 1947 Partition Plan for Palestine, his granting of first exemptions to Orthodox military servicepeople and his peaceful overtures toward post-Holocaust Germany.

Ben-Gurion

Ben-Gurion PDF Author: Anita Shapira
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300180454
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
David Ben-Gurion cast an enormous shadow across his world, and his legacy in the Middle East and beyond continues to be hotly 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 is the first to get to the core of the complex man who would become the face of a new nation. Shapira tells the Ben-Gurion story anew, focusing especially on the period in 1948 immediately following Israel's declaration of independence, a time few historians have concentrated on and none have explored in such intimate detail. Through her intensive research and access to Ben-Gurion's personal archives and rarely viewed documents and letters, the author gained powerful insights into his private persona. Her fascinating literary portrait of David Ben-Gurion bares the flesh-and-blood man inside the influential historical figure who brought the Zionist dream to full fruition.

Ben-Gurion

Ben-Gurion PDF Author: Michael Bar-Zohar
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780440009870
Category : Statesmen
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description


David Ben-Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy

David Ben-Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy PDF Author: Nir Kedar
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253057450
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
In David Ben-Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy, Nir Kedar offers a poignant study of the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Kedar provides an explication of the making of Israeli democracy in terms of its institutional-legal structures and social-cultural underpinnings. David Ben-Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy connects the formal structures of democracy to the fundamental principles that they were constructed to serve—human freedom and dignity.

Memoirs: David Ben-Gurion

Memoirs: David Ben-Gurion PDF Author: David Ben-Gurion
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
"Based on a series of interviews with Ben-Gurion during the filming of the Covenant Communications Corporation production of Forty-two six." Bibliography: p. [215]-216. Jacket price: 6.95.

Ben Gurion

Ben Gurion PDF Author: Dan Kurzman
Publisher: Holiday House
ISBN: 9780671528218
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 546

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Book Description


Ben-Gurion

Ben-Gurion PDF Author: Shabtai Teveth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 1032

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Book Description
The author takes the reader through ben Gurion's life, from birth to his crowning event, the Extablishment of the State of Israel. called the "father of the State of Israel", he provides through his life a living history of Zionism.

Ben-Gurion's Scandals

Ben-Gurion's Scandals PDF Author: Naeim Giladi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780999215746
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Shocking revelations about David Ben-Gurion¿s misconduct during his entire political career, including the former Israeli Prime Minister¿s disregard of vital information pertaining to the slaughter of Jews in Europe during the Holocaust¿ The sinking of ships carrying Jewish survivors from Europe under Ben Gurion¿s knowledge and order¿ The bombing of Jewish installations in Iraq in order to fore the Jews to leave Iraq for Israel¿

Ben-Gurion

Ben-Gurion PDF Author: Avi Shilon
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442249471
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
This is the first in-depth account of the later years of David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973), Israel’s first Prime Minister and founding father. One of the first to sign Israel’s declaration of independence and a leading figure in Zionism, Ben-Gurion stepped down from office in 1963 and retired from political life in 1970, deeply disappointed about the path on which the state had embarked and the process that brought about the end of his political career. He moved to a kibbutz in the Negev desert, where he lived until his death. Robbed of the public aura that had wrapped him for decades, his revolutionary passion, which was not weakened in his 80s, pushed him to continue seeking social and moral change in Israel, a political solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict, and to conduct a personal and national soul-searching about the development of the State he himself had declared. Based on his personal archives and new interviews with his intimate friends and family, the book reveals how the founding father explored the Israeli establishment he created and from which he later disengaged. It provides a thorough examination of the decisive moments in the annals of Zionism as revealed through the lens of Ben-Gurion’s worldview, which are still relevant to present-day Israel.