Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880-1948 - Softcover

Levine, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520243714 ISBN 13: 9780520243712

Publisher: University of California Press, 2005

Synopsis

This landmark book offers a truly integrated perspective for understanding the formation of Jewish and Palestinian Arab identities and relations in Palestine before 1948. Beginning with the late Ottoman period Mark LeVine explores the evolving history and geography of two cities: Jaffa, one of the oldest ports in the world, and Tel Aviv, which was born alongside Jaffa and by 1948 had annexed it as well as its surrounding Arab villages. Drawing from a wealth of untapped primary sources, including Ottoman records, Jaffa Shari'a court documents, town planning records, oral histories, and numerous Zionist and European archival sources, LeVine challenges nationalist historiographies of Jaffa and Tel Aviv, revealing the manifold interactions of the Jewish and Palestinian Arab communities that lived there.

At the center of the book is a discussion of how Tel Aviv's self-definition as the epitome of modernity affected its and Jaffa's development and Jaffa's own modern pretenses as well. As he unravels this dynamic, LeVine provides new insights into how popular cultures and public spheres evolved in this intersection of colonial, modern, and urban space. He concludes with a provocative discussion of how these discourses affected the development of today's unified city of Tel Aviv–Yafo and, through it, Israeli and Palestinian identities within in and outside historical Palestine.

About this title

Product Description:

Overthrowing Geography "This is an exciting and important book about social and urban history as well as borders and identity, specifically of modern Middle East. The story Le Vine unfolds is easy to follow and get involved with."--Leila Fawaz, author of "An Occasion for War: Civil Conflict in Lebanon and Demascus in 1860" "This is a foundational work for a new way of studying Palestinian-Israeli relations. LeVine conc Full description

Review:

"Well-crafted, eminently readable."--"Intl Jrnl of Middle East Stds (Ijmes)"

"Well-crafted, eminently readable."--"Intl Journal of Middle East Stds (Ijmes)"

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0520243714
• ISBN 13: 9780520243712
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 460