Zionism and the Fin de Siècle: Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism from Nordau to Jabotinsky (0520227883) - Reviews and Prices
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Zionism and the Fin de Siècle: Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism from Nordau to Jabotinsky (0520227883) - Customer Reviews, Information, Ratings, and Prices
Zionism and the Fin de Siècle: Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism from Nordau to Jabotinsky (0520227883) - Reviews and Prices
Michael Stanislawski's provocative study of Max Nordau, Ephraim Moses Lilien, and Vladimir Jabotinsky reconceives the intersection of the European fin de siècle and early Zionism. Stanislawski takes up the tantalizing question of why Zionism, at a particular stage in its development, became so attractive to certain cosmopolitan intellectuals and artists. With the help of hundreds of previously unavailable documents, published and unpublished, he reconstructs the ideological journeys of writer and critic Nordau, artist Lilien, and political icon Jabotinsky. He argues against the common conception of Nordau and Jabotinsky as nineteenth-century liberals, insisting that they must be understood against the backdrop of Social Darwinism in the West and the Positivism of Russian radicalism in the fin de siècle, as well as Symbolism, Decadence, and Art Nouveau. When these men turned to Zionism, Stanislawski says, far from abandoning their aesthetic and intellectual preconceptions, they molded Zionism according to their fin de siècle cosmopolitanism. Showing how cosmopolitanism turned to nationalism in the lives and work of these crucial early Zionists, this story is a fascinating chapter in European and Russian, as well as Jewish, cultural and political history.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 2.5 / 5.0
Obvious and Sneering:
Well, of course (a) Nordau, Lillian and Jabotinsky were a product of their time and (b) Jabotinsky wasn't one of the great literary masters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but so what? I can't quite figure out what the point of the book was. That said, I found the actual historical information very useful, especially the discussion of Nordau's bizzare love affair with a Russian noblewoman. I can't say that this book is required reading for those interested in these Zionist personalities, but it... more info
Promises too much:
This book, while occasionally interesting and informative, doesn't live up to its promise of placing Zionism in the context of the Fin de Siecle, that caldron of ideas which ushered in our modern era. At times reading like a narrowly focused historical monograph and at other times reading like a series of esoteric literary reviews, the book uses the nomenclature of a PhD dissertation to produce an ultimately unsatisfying overview of one of the most fascinating, and important, movements of the modern age,... more info
