Israel’s National Historiography

"Crafted from a blend of scholarly rigor and profound personal insight, this book is firmly embedded in sociological theory while offering a wealth of informative historical detail. An indispensable guide for anyone seeking to navigate the complexities of present-day Israeli identity." —Marta Bucholc, University of Warsaw, Poland “Alon Helled not only deciphers the double-binds shaping the Israeli-Palestinian configuration: he offers us a mirror that we urgently need to turn towards all our nationalisms, if we are to develop our means of orientation and emerge from the maelstrom, in Palestine, Europe and elsewhere.” —Florence Delmotte, Saint Louis-Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium "A book for our troubled times, Alon Helled’s intriguing and analytically rigourous investigation of Israeli national identity and historiography is a compelling reading. It brings together detailed research of a very fine-grained kind with an outstanding use of an Elias framework." —Liz Stanley, University of Edinburgh, UK This book analyzes the development of Israel's national identity through the world of local Jewish Zionist historiography. Inspired by Norbert Elias’ historical and figurational sociology, it examines the different phases of Israel's sociopolitical history in the light of the collective habitus and the Zionist nation-state. It does so by putting the intellectual profession of history-writing and the processes of state and identity building in conversation. By combining the well-established literature on the relationship between nationalism and statehood and on the particularity of the Israeli case, this book opens new debates on Jewish\Israeli exceptionalism, while shedding light on continuity and change in Israeli statehood vis-à-vis the supposed uniqueness of Jewish history. As it investigates the interconnections between local intelligentsia and politics, the enquiry avails of the sociological concepts of “generation,” “habitus,” “survival unit,” “field,” in the tradition of Bourdieu, Norbert Elias, Max Weber, and others. By situating Israeli historians and their profession on the dynamic crossroads of academia, politics, and greater society, this study delineates the deep meaning of “Israeliness.”