Fulfilment: The Epic Story of Zionism by Rufus Learsi; The Return to the Soil: A History ofJewish Settlement in Israel by Alex Bein; The New State of Israel by Gerald de Gaury; Israel:The Beginning and Tomorrow by Hal LehrmanReview by: Philip FriedmanThe American Historical Review, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Jul., 1953), pp. 880-882Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1842470 .

Accessed: 25/06/2014 11:01

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Oxford University Press and American Historical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to The American Historical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.208 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 11:01:10 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

88o Reviews of Books

FULFILLMENT: THE EPIC STORY OF ZIONISM. By Rufus Learsi. (Cleve- land: World Publishing Company. I95I. PP. X, 426. $5.00.)

THE RETURN TO THE SOIL: A HISTORY OF JEWISH SETTLEMENT IN ISRAEL. By Alex Bein. (Jerusalem: Youth and Hechalutz Department, Zionist Organisation. I952. Pp. ix, 576.)

THE NEW STATE OF ISRAEL. By Gerald de Gaury. (New York: Frederick A. Praeger. I952. Pp. 260. $3.95.)

ISRAEL: THE BEGINNING AND TOMORROW. By Hal Lehrman. (New York: William Sloane Associates. I95I. PP. 358. $3.75.)

THE four books to be reviewed are to a certain extent complementary to each other. Learsi's Fulfillment is a history of Zionism as a movement aiming at the "ingathering of the exiles" from approximately sixty countries of the world, of the remnants of a people scattered for almost two thousand years. Bein's book deals with another aspect of the same problem, with that of the Jewish coloniza- tion of Palestine and the endeavor to create a home for millions of people in a barren, desolate land, one poor in natural resources, extremely limited in area, and one which had scarcely been cultivated for centuries. As we see from Bein's description, one of the results of this experiment was the strange co-existence of two conflicting civilizations: on the one hand that of dynamic modern capitalism and trade unionism, and on the other the static world of medieval feudalism and tribal nomadism. Another result exposed in Bein's book was the conflict among the various forces within the Jewish sector: the old ultra-orthodox Jewish com- munity there, the new idealistic immigrants, the philanthropic colonization and its philosophy, the Zionist colonizing program and work, private capitalist enter- prise, and the various forms of utopian socialism and trade unionism, all striving to realize their ideals in the Promised Land. While both Learsi and Bein are committed to a broad historical presentation, Colonel Gerald de Gaury examines the new state of Israel from its inception (May, I948) to the present. The reader of de Gaury's book, who will find in it a concise compendium of facts, figures, and statistics, will be delighted to supplement this knowledge with some of the "behind the scene" information presented with lively journalistic skill in Hal Lehrman's book. In this review it is impossible even to mention, and still more to comment upon, all the features of interest in these four books. The reviewer will, therefore, limit himself to certain short remarks.

The broadest in range and scope is Learsi's Fulfillment. This goes back (rather unnecessarily, in my opinion) to the Biblical period, and strives to present a synoptical view of the relations between the diaspora and Palestine during two thousand years of Jewish history. After this lengthy introduction follows the story of the "Lovers of Zion," a movement born in the i88o's among the Russian Jewry, and that of the political Zionism conceived of by Theodor Herzl. The author relies chiefly on standard secondary sources. This book is a readable,

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.208 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 11:01:10 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Learsi: Fulfillment: The St-ory of Zionisn 88 I

sometimes fascinating, popular history of Ziolnism from the First Zionist Congress to the creation of the state of Israel. Although the book may fail to make any relevant additions to the knowledge of the expert in the field, it is still a very useful one for the layman. The author's views are anchored to the political phi- losophy of Zionism. Other Jewish political parties and programs are dealt with not according to their merits but only insofar as their opposition to Zionism is concerned. In some of his interpretations and generalizations the author broaches controversial issues (pp. 20-2I), and sometimes he indulges in a slightly polemical and propagandistic attitude (pp. 209-I0, 259, 278-94). Trivial minor errors need not be mentioned, but some of the more substantial inaccuracies should be pointed out. For instance, to call the Jews in Galicia in the 1900's, who had been emancipated for sixty years and participated actively in the political life of con- stitutional Austria, "politically less mature" (p. I2I) than the Jews in tsarist Russia, is a rather subjective statement. It is also inaccurate to dub the famous Christian Socialist leader in Austria, Karl Lueger, a proto-Nazi (p. 99), to cite the number of Jews killed in the pogroms in the Ukraine and Russia at the end of World War I as "hundreds of thousands" (p. 206), to set the number of Jews in Germany in I933 as high as 650,000 (p. 260), instead of 500,000

to 525,000, or to state that "by the end of I939 the Jewish community in Germany was practically liquidated" (p. 302), whereas in fact 2I5,000 Jews still lived in Germany.

Bein's Return to the Soil is a solid, diligent study of Jewish colonization in Palestine from the i88o's to the present. The book is based on the author's extensive research in archives and private collections, his interviews, and many years of personal experience. Much of the data which he has collected so pains- takingly is difficult, if not impossible, to find elsewhere. This is valuable material for the future historian. However the general reader, and sometimes also the scholar not particularly interested in the details, will find quite tedious the ex- tended attention given to the innumerable local histories of individual settle- ments, or the minutious accounts of petty quarrels and discussions, etc. In organization and presentation the author is obviously handicapped by the wealth of material assembled. The book suffers from a lack of uniformity and from repetitions (e.g., pp. 77, 5I8-I9). The style and diction are pedestrian. Some important lacunae should be filled in: for instance more attention should be given to the social organization and agricultural structure of the Palestine Arabs and to the Turkish and Moslem agrarian laws. The important issue of the transfer agreement (Haavarah) between the German government and the Jewish Agency is completely ignored in the discussion of immigration from Germany after I933. The epilogue should be broadened into a comprehensive synthesis instead of being a kind of short, semiofficial statement. Incidentally, a comparative failure, might well be included. analysis of agrarian colonization in Argentina and Russia, its vicissitudes and

De Gaury's The New State of Israel is a well-organized, handy, and service-

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.208 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 11:01:10 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

882 Reviews of Books

able reference book. It is terse and sometimes too technical. The author has assiduously gathered the scattered pieces of evidence about a state in statu nascendi and integrated them into a well-framed picture. The book is written with pre- cision and an independent judgment. In the opinion of this writer the best chapters are those on the political system of Israel, and on finance and economics. Among the minor errors one needs to be corrected: the recognition of Israel by the United States on May I4, I948, was de facto, and not de jure, as the writer erroneously states (p. I9). The explanation of Hebrew words is sometimes incor- rect, particularly in grammar, as is also the spelling.

Hal Lehrman characterizes the task of his report as that of describing "sympa- thetically but objectively, critically but constructively, certain major developments in and concerning Israel during these first formative years" (I948-5I). In every controversial issue he tries carefully to render justice to all the conflicting parties and ideologies, conscientiously elaborating the opposing views and intelligently stating all the positions. The nature of the issues involved is elucidated by a searching analysis and thorough discussion. Particularly typical of this dichotomy of criticism and defense are the chapters on the Histadruth (General Federation of Labor), on the elections in Israel, on the economic challenge, and on fund raising, particularly in the United States. The chapter "Reporter's Notebook" presents immediate observations and reactions, written on the spot, about the hot issues of the day. In general, the book is stimulating and thought provoking, marked by a fresh insight and a light, chatty style.

Columbia University PHILIP FRIEDMAN

TURBULENT ERA: A DIPLOMATIC RECORD OF FORTY YEARS,

I904-I945. By Joseph C. Grew. Edited by Walter Johnson, assisted by Nancy Harvison Hooker. In two volumes. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

I952. Pp. xxvi, 705; vi, 707-I560. $15.00.)

"I HOPE you have been keeping a diary... ," wrote Mr. Grew to a friend in

I9I5, "for it is a duty for every one of us to record even the smallest points, which may seem to us now unimportant, but which may subsequently, in con- nection with other points, throw valuable light on dark corners in history."

Turbulent Era does just that. It is neither memoirs nor autobiography, properly speaking, but a collection chiefly of diary excerpts, letters, and dispatches con- temporary with the events they reflect. Grew was perpetually conscious of pro-

ducing the raw material for historians, saying that "the verdict must be left to history." He never claims, as did Churchill once, to be writing the history that

rendered the verdict. Though it contains no major revelations, and though it represents only a selection from i68 volumes of papers, the book is immensely rewarding for historians. It spans the career of an outstanding American diplomat in fourteen posts under eight presidents. The diary is not only a record of events

and opinions but almost certainly was itself influential in policy determination at

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.208 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 11:01:10 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions