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Amnon Rubinstein and Alexander Yakobson explore the nature of Israel's identity as a Jewish state, how that is compatible with liberal democratic norms and is comparable with a number of European states.
Study on the teachings of Om̐kāra Bābā, Hindu and sufi saint, from Koraput District in Orissa.
Can Israel be both Jewish and truly democratic? How can a nation–state, which incorporates a large national minority with a distinct identity of its own be a state of all its citizens? Written by two eminent Israeli scholars, a professor of constitutional law and a historian, Alexander Yakobson and Amnon Rubinstein are the first to treat Zionism and Israeli experience in light of other states’ experiences and in particular of newly established states that have undergone constitutional changes and wrestled with issues of minorities. Citing various European, constitutions and laws, the authors explore concept of a Jewish State and its various meanings in the light of international law, and...
A groundbreaking study of the foundations of nationalism, exposing its antiquity, strong links with ethnicity and roots in human nature.
In 221 BCE the state of Qin vanquished its rivals and established the first empire on Chinese soil, starting a millennium-long imperial age in Chinese history. Hailed by some and maligned by many, Qin has long been an enigma. In this pathbreaking study, the authors integrate textual sources with newly available archeological and paleographic materials, providing a boldly novel picture of Qin’s cultural and political trajectory, its evolving institutions and its religion, its place in China’s history, and the reasons for its success and for its ultimate collapse.
The book consists of 16 case-studies on issues relating to memory, the majority of which stem from a conference in April 2005 at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Public memory is tackled from a variety of angles and various disciplines, ranging across the humanities, the social sciences and the exact sciences. First and foremost the reader will obtain a comprehensive overview of the results of scholarship published in recent years about public memory. Second, the book provides a profound insight into how public memory works within societies of different nature and at different junctures of their histories. The volume begins by offering a glimpse into individual memory, and then goes on to discuss religious societies, ethnic groups, secular groups, institutions and larger segments of society, ultimately reaching the nation state. The authors, each in his or her own discipline, have addressed the complexities involved in the creation of public memory, the media that promote and preserve it within groups and societies, and finally the nature of memory and how it «behaves» during changing circumstances and changing regimes.
What are the origins of nationalism and why is it capable of arousing such intense emotions? In this major study, Azar Gat counters the prevailing fashionable theories according to which nations and nationalism are modern and contrived or 'invented'. He sweeps across history and around the globe to reveal that ethnicity has always been highly political and that nations and national states have existed since the beginning of statehood millennia ago. He traces the deep roots of ethnicity and nationalism in human nature, showing how culture fits into human evolution from as early as our aboriginal condition and, in conjunction with kinship, defines ethnicity and ethnic allegiances. From the rise of states and empires to the present day, this book sheds new light on the explosive nature of ethnicity and nationalism, as well as on their more liberating and altruistic roles in forging identity and solidarity.
Examines the clash between political systems and political action as the Roman Republic disintegrated.
Addressing one of the greatest challenges facing liberalism today, this book asks if is it legally and morally defensible for a liberal state to restrict immigration in order to preserve the cultural rights of majority groups. Orgad proposes a liberal approach to this dilemma and explores its dimensions, justifications, and limitations.
The bestselling analysis of Jewish history, by a leading Israeli historian.