My Promised Land
The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel
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Narrated by:
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Paul Boehmer
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Written by:
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Ari Shavit
About this listen
New York Times best seller
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review and The Economist
Winner of the Natan Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
An authoritative and deeply personal narrative history of the State of Israel, by one of the most influential journalists writing about the Middle East today.
Not since Thomas L. Friedman's groundbreaking From Beirut to Jerusalem has a book captured the essence and the beating heart of the Middle East as keenly and dynamically as My Promised Land. Facing unprecedented internal and external pressures, Israel today is at a moment of existential crisis. Ari Shavit draws on interviews, historical documents, private diaries, and letters, as well as his own family's story, illuminating the pivotal moments of the Zionist century to tell a riveting narrative that is larger than the sum of its parts: both personal and national, both deeply human and of profound historical dimension.
We meet Shavit’s great-grandfather, a British Zionist who, in 1897, visited the Holy Land on a Thomas Cook tour and understood that it was the way of the future for his people; the idealist young farmer who bought land from his Arab neighbor in the 1920s to grow the Jaffa oranges that would create Palestine’s booming economy; the visionary youth group leader who, in the 1940s, transformed Masada from the neglected ruins of an extremist sect into a powerful symbol for Zionism; the Palestinian who as a young man in 1948 was driven with his family from his home during the expulsion from Lydda; the immigrant orphans of Europe’s Holocaust, who took on menial work and focused on raising their children to become the leaders of the new state; the pragmatic engineer who was instrumental in developing Israel’s nuclear program in the 1960s, in the only interview he ever gave; the zealous religious Zionists who started the settler movement in the 1970s; the dot-com entrepreneurs and young men and women behind Tel-Aviv’s booming club scene; and today’s architects of Israel’s foreign policy with Iran, whose nuclear threat looms ominously over the tiny country.
As it examines the complexities and contradictions of the Israeli condition, My Promised Land asks difficult but important questions: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? Can Israel survive? Culminating with an analysis of the issues and threats that Israel is currently facing, My Promised Land uses the defining events of the past to shed new light on the present. The result is a landmark portrait of a small, vibrant country living on the edge, whose identity and presence play a crucial role in today’s global political landscape.
Praise for My Promised Land
“This book will sweep you up in its narrative force and not let go of you until it is done. [Shavit’s] accomplishment is so unlikely, so total...that it makes you believe anything is possible, even, God help us, peace in the Middle East.” (Simon Schama, Financial Times)
“[A] must-read book.” (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times)
“Important and powerful...the least tendentious book about Israel I have ever read.” (Leon Wieseltier, The New York Times Book Review)
“Spellbinding...Shavit’s prophetic voice carries lessons that all sides need to hear.” (The Economist)
“One of the most nuanced and challenging books written on Israel in years.” (The Wall Street Journal)
©2013 Random House Audio (P)2013 Ari ShavitYou may also enjoy...
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What the critics say
“Shavit's provocative book avoids the clichés typical of some works about the Middle East, and the audio version benefits from Paul Boehmer's superb presentation.” (AudioFile Magazine)
“The most extraordinary book that I’ve read on [Israel] since Amos Elon’s book called The Israelis, and that was published in the late sixties.” (David Remnick)
“Shavit is a master storyteller. [His] retelling of history jars us out of our familiar retrospections, reminds us (and we do need reminders) that there are historical reasons why Israel is a country on the edge.... Required reading for both the left and the right.” (The Jewish Week)
What listeners say about My Promised Land
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 2019-07-05
got no choice but to recommend this one
over the last six months I spent hundreds of dollars on audiobooks.
I vehemently disagree with many of the conclusions of the author and strongly opposed some of the wording used to describe events.
in spite of all of that this has been the most interesting book that I've listened to in the last little while.
that being said, there's a great danger in this book. the author, a lefty Zionist, provides unfavorable quotes for the enemies of the Zionist Enterprise.
for me, a grandson of an Irgon fighter on one side and a sole survivor of the Holocaust on the other side this book was exciting and infuriating at the same time.
strongly recommend.
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- Evangaline
- 2020-12-23
Fight For the Soul of Israel
Intriguing story about the fight for the soul of Israel. I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land a couple of years ago. I had the privilege of being able to cross back and forth from the Palestinian occupied territories to Israel, something few Palestinians or Israelis can do. This book fills in some of the blanks.
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- Arthur Rubinstein
- 2020-09-06
For my first time
By far this is a much read! I am in my 70's and for the 1st time I understand Israel and being a Jewish.
Unbelievably told story. I hope I will
be able to travel to Israel and meet
Avi Shavit.
Arthur Rubinstein
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- Mohsen
- 2022-05-12
Great book and story to read.
l iked the book, it seems the author kept the honesty and uncovered some truth about how Israel came to exist. I learned so much about history of first settlers and the pain people in that region went through. However, he kept side and no encouragement of Peace.
Thank you, I look forward to his next book(s).
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- Mel K
- 2021-04-26
a logical falicy
the author seems to be passionate but some of his argumentation is easy to refute
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