Unacknowledged Kinships – Postcolonial Studies and the Historiography of Zionism

“This is a major volume attempting to create a rapprochement between postcolonial studies and the study of Zionism. The volume does what it sets out to do. It is the first serious attempt to rethink this relationship in both theoretical and concrete ways and is an enormously valuable first step in a mutual reassessment of contemporary theoretical approaches to Zionism. Given our present discussions about Zionism and anti-Semitism, a book that is of growing importance each and every day!” -- Sander Gilman, coauthor of Cosmopolitanisms and the Jews
“The history of the Jews and of Zionism have entertained a supremely ambivalent relationship with postcolonial studies. As Europeans’ most distinct and enduring ‘inner’ other, Jews were paradigmatic victims of colonialist practices and ideologies. Yet Zionism itself has often been accused of mirroring European colonialism. This immensely useful book brings much needed order to understand the tangled and ambivalent relationships between postcolonialism and the nationalist history of the Jews. More crucially, it shows that postcolonialism is a needed conceptual framework to further our understanding of the history and sociology of the Jews. This illuminating collection of texts will have a lasting impact on Israel and Jewish Studies.” -- Eva Illouz, Directrice d'Etudes, EHESS, Paris, and author of The Emotional Life of Populism
“Challenging the received wisdom that defines Zionism as a colonial enterprise, this volume breaks new ground in looking at its many if ultimately unsuccessful links with anticolonial movements worldwide. It represents, in addition, a welcome effort to lend depth and complexity to the history of nationalism more generally.” -- Faisal Devji, professor of Indian history, University of Oxford
“This volume brings together an unusually rich collection of theoretical interventions, historical case studies, and long-deferred conversations that interrogate the fraught relationship between Zionism and postcolonialism. The editors make a strong case for bringing into dialogue the two phenomena and the abundant scholarship they have generated. The result is a deeply engrossing, provocative, and often surprising reading experience that requires one to think anew about core assumptions.” -- David N. Myers, Distinguished Professor and Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History, UCLA