This book presents an unconventional history of minority nationalism in interwar Eastern Europe. Focusing on an influential group of grassroots activists, Tatjana Lichtenstein uncovers Zionist projects intended to sustain the flourishing Jewish national life in Czechoslovakia. The book shows that Zionism was not an exit strategy for Jews, but as a ticket of admission to the societies they already called home. It explores how and why Zionists envisioned minority nationalism as a way to construct Jews' belonging and civic equality in Czechoslovakia. By giving voice to the diversity of aspirations within interwar Zionism, the book offers a fresh view of minority nationalism and state building in Eastern Europe.

About the Author

Tatjana Lichtenstein is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin.

Reviews

[W]ell researched and meticulously cited . . . Recommended.

* Choice *

Lichtenstein is to be commended for writing what promises to be a definitive account of Jewish minority nationalism in interwar Czechoslovakia. . . The detailed geographic and ideological contextualization of the Czech case study will interest all scholars researching Jewish history in central and eastern Europe, as well as the history of nation-building in modern Europe.

* Slavic Review *

Lichtenstein's book makes a dynamic contribution to the recent historiography of the Jewish experience in twentieth century.

* Hungarian Historical Review *

Zionists in Interwar Czechoslovakia is a powerful study of interwar Zionism in Czechoslovakia that both complicates the picture and draws simple and useful parallels to contemporaneous developments in Europe

* Austrian Studies *

This richly detailed monograph, based on an array of archival and contemporary secondary sources, is a welcome addition to modern European, but especially modern Jewish, historiography.

* European History Quarterly *

Lichtenstein's book is of utmost importance for the understanding of Zionism as a national movement beyond the national project in Palestine.

* East Central Europe *

[A] well-documented and insightful monograph.

* American Historical Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253018670
Author Tatjana Lichtenstein
Format Hardback
Page Count 494
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 807g