God's Peoples: Covenant and Land in South Africa, Israel, and Ulster [Hardcover]

Donald Harman Akenson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1992

Chosen as one of Library Journal's Best Books of 1992

"Superb scholarship and compelling writing."--Library Journal "Splendidly illuminating and enthrallingly readable."--Conor Cruise O'Brien

Asserting that the dominant peoples of South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Israel have based their cultural identity on a belief in a covenant with an all-powerful God, Akenson vividly characterizes the effects of this conviction on each nation's history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Akenson's unorthodox view, the ruling Afrikaners of South Africa, the Jews of modern Israel and the Protestant Ulster-Scots of Northern Ireland share a "covenantal mindset." Inspired by the ancient Hebrews' covenant with their God Yahweh, he asserts, each of these three groups believes it is a Chosen People with a sacred claim to a promised land. Although the comparative history of the three groups is sometimes provocative, the extended historical analogy breaks down at many points and is rife with speculation and leaps of logic. Regarding the Jews' settlement of Israel and their confiscation of Arab lands as a "collective act of colonization," Akenson rebukes Zionist settlers who viewed Palestinian Arabs as backward and not a genuine people. He suggests that the covenantal mindset is gradually dissolving in South Africa and Northern Ireland, but contends that the Israelis are hardening in their determination to fulfill their ancient covenant. Akenson is a professor of history at Queen's University in Canada.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this sterling study of three of the world's most obdurate political conflicts, Akenson finds a common thread in the views of Ulster Scots Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed Church Afrikaners, and the Jews of Israel, each of whom are committed to an Old Testament-like covenant with God that promises them the land they struggled to get if they make the commitment and sacrifice necessary in such a covenant. With superb scholarship and compelling writing, Akenson brilliantly documents the creation of this mentality of commitment and siege (these are God's chosen people under attack from external enemies). He takes us to the present with the fraying of the Ulster covenant by the Catholic civil rights movement of 1969; the worldwide response to apartheid after 1969; and the claim of the Jews to "greater Israel" after the 1967 war. Akenson concludes that patience works better than confrontation with these societies. The combination of a masterful handling of comparative history, an engaging and well-supported thesis, and a challenging but not condescending treatment of these three societies makes this a highly recommended choice for most libraries. --Richard B. Finnegan, Stonehill Coll., North Easton, Mass.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 404 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press; 1ST edition (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080142755X
• ISBN-13: 978-0801427558
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,638,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God's Peoples reviewed by a "God's Person", September 1, 2000

By 

Alex Greer (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God's Peoples: Covenant and Land in South Africa, Israel, and Ulster (Hardcover)

D.H. Akenson has masterfully taken a complex subject, that being the Old Testament, along with South African, Irish, and Jewish histories, and has put it together in a very compelling thesis. It is well organized in sections dealing with the origins of the particular covenants, a section on the covenant and the state, and a section of the covenant in recent times. The book is very hard to read for the layman, but for the informed he has done a great service. The only weaknesses I find is that he does not do present enough analysises of the differences within the covenanted peoples, especially as certain factions differed on the application of the covenant.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A layman view, January 14, 2003

By 

Dorothy Chance "Dorothy Chance" (Tampa, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God's Peoples: Covenant and Land in South Africa, Israel, and Ulster (Hardcover)

As a child of the Scotch Irish diaspora, I am finding this book riveting.

The thesis presented here carefully demonstrates the powerful and ongoing impact of the Hebrew Scripture, particularly the covenanting of God's "Chosen People," on peoples who read and take seriously (even literally) the several thousand year old constructs of the ancient Hebrew tribe of Israel.

Most of my pondering about the "why" of customs and belief systems of my own almost entirely Scotch Irish family find articulation in this amazing book. Four hundred years after Calvin and over 200 since the last of my family left Ulster, the power of the covenant lingers still.

I wish Dr. Akenson could consider exploring the town of Due West, South Carolina, and Erskine College, to find the very strong threads of this culture alive and well in the United States.