The Invention of a Nation: Zionist Thought and the Making of Modern Israel

by Alain Dieckhoff, Jonathan Derrick (Translator)

For two centuries, according to Alain Dieckhoff, the Jews were remarkable experimenters. Reacting to the challenge of modernity, Jews followed two, often torturously contradictory paths―the path of assimilation (bourgeois or socialist) and that of nationalism.This book provides a comprehensive overview of the various ideologies that have constituted Zionism, ranging from Marxist-Zionism to National Religious Zionism to that of the far-right Abba Achimeir. Unlike other studies of the topic, this book makes explicit the debt the Zionists owed to French thinkers and European ideologues, notably those associated with the French Revolution and the Enlightenment.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Alain Dieckhoff is Senior Research Fellow, Centre for International Studies and Research, and teaches at Sciences Po, Paris. As an academic he has worked extensively on various aspects of contemporary Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has also undertaken a major comparative project on nationalism in the Western world.

Reviews

[Russell]

Picked up a copy on the sale table at Limmud Johannesburg 2009. Enjoying it immensely so far. (But then again, I’m a nerd.) It’s interesting to see Zionism being examined as (almost) just another 19th Century budding nationalism (apart from the whole lack of language and territory thing).

I really need to read this again, and follow up on some of the bibliographical references. Although I see myself as well-read/informed when it comes to the origins and ideology of Zionism, there was a lot that was new to me here.

It's fascinating to see Zionism in the context of the other national and national liberation movements that arose at the same time, and watch the process of a scattered people (or part thereof) choosing to define itself as a nation, then acquire (or re-acquire) a language, national symbols, a society, and finally a territory.

Let's hope that the ideology of Orthodoxy doesn't succeed in completely polluting the vision, until Israel Israel finally descends into chaos and eventual destruction.