Industrial & Scientific The Rosie Effect The Rosie Effect The Rosie Effect The Rosie Effect Shop Men's Running Shoes Shop Men's Running Shoes Shop Men's Cloud Drive Photos nav_sap_plcc_6M_fly_beacon Sinclair Amazon Fire Phone, now available unlocked Amazon Fire TV New Year in Beauty HA Digital Week Digital Week Digital Week Fire tablets Year-End Kindle Daily Deals Video Games Accessories Week Shop Yoga Shop Athletic Clothing Shop Exercise & Fitness Toys & Games Deals
Jabotinsky (Jewish Lives) and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
Qty:1
  • List Price: $25.00
  • Save: $5.92 (24%)
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Gift-wrap available.
+ $3.99 shipping
Used: Like New | Details
Condition: Used: Like New
Comment: 2014 - Hardcover - Used - Like New - - Minor shelf-wear on cover. Otherwise, volume un-read with no underlining or highlighting. - -
Sell yours for a Gift Card
We'll buy it for $6.33
Learn More
Trade in now
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See this image

Jabotinsky: A Life (Jewish Lives) Hardcover – May 27, 2014


See all 2 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
Hardcover
"Please retry"
$19.08
$15.08 $15.07
Year-End%20Deals%20in%20Books


Frequently Bought Together

Jabotinsky: A Life (Jewish Lives) + Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul (Jewish Encounters) + Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History
Price for all three: $62.77

Buy the selected items together
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Best Books of the Year
Best Books of 2014
Looking for something great to read? Browse our editors' picks for 2014's Best Books of the Year in fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, children's books, and much more.

Product Details

  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Yale University Press (May 27, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0300136625
  • ISBN-13: 978-0300136623
  • Product Dimensions: 1 x 6 x 8.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  •  Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?


Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hillel Halkin has done the impossible: He has gracefully condensed the story of this complex tragic figure into a page-turner that is at once concise and a rattling good read."—FrontPage Magazine (FrontPage Magazine)

"Mr. Halkin's book presents [Jabotinsky] in all his hardheaded but humane complexity."—Douglas J. Feith, Wall Street Journal
(Douglas J. Feith Wall Street Journal)

"Given the war, or rather, wars, roiling the Middle East, this is a particularly good time to rethink the legacy of Zionist leader Vladmir Jabotinsky, as Hillel Halkin invites readers to do in his compact and evocative new biography."—Harvey Blume, Arts Fuse
(Harvey Blume Arts Fuse)

"For many, [this book] will open up a man and his ideas whose influence is still felt today and who had an important role in the ideological struggles that shaped the Zionist movement and the modern Jewish state."—Chicago Jewish Star
(Chicago Jewish Star)

"[An] excellent biography . . . Halkin, an award-winning writer, critic, and translator, sets Jabotinsky, who was born in 1880, in the context of his time."—Jacob Heilbrunn, Washington Monthly
(Jacob Heilbrunn Washington Monthly)

"A beautifully written short biography of an exceedingly interesting man: a novelist, translator, poet, playwright, journalist, polemicist, and probably the most remarkable public speaker in modern Jewish life. Halkin’s account of him is credible and vivid."—Avishai Margalit, New York Review of Books
(Avishai Margalit New York Review of Books)

"Concise and highly readable."—Jerusalem Post
(Jerusalem Post)

"An intellectually deep book which is insightful and historic – and worthwhile reading for anyone interested in Zionist history and the life of a great Jewish hero. Every Jewish library needs a copy of Jabotinsky: A Life By Hillel Halkin."—San Diego Jewish World
(San Diego Jewish World)

"A revelatory exploration of Vladimir Jabotinsky."—Jewish Chronicle
(Jewish Chronicle)

"Halkin’s exquisite translation strikingly reveals the personal side of a man so often vilified in the press for his uncompromising political stands. In a similar way, Halkin’s literary criticism offers unparalleled insights into little known aspects of Jabotinsky’s career, and his discussion of the Jabotinsky’s novel, The Five . . . is probably the best analysis of the novel to date."—Times of Israel
(Times of Israel)

"Remarkable . . . Deftly traces and provides new insight into Jabotinsky's journey from Odessa childhood to Italian University dandy to renowned journalist to Zionist icon. Reading Halkin's book confirms Jabotinsky’s place as the 20th century’s most prescient Jewish political thinker."—Jewish Week Well-Versed Blog
(Jewish Week Well-Versed Blog)

About the Author

Hillel Halkin is a writer, critic, and translator. He is the author of Across the Sabbath River and Yehuda Halevi, both of which won the National Jewish Book Award. His most recent book is Melisande! What Are Dreams? He lives in Israel.

Customer Reviews

A very important book to read.
suzanne bermant
As to the writing of the book itself, the exceptionally small print size of literary excerpts and conversations made those passages almost impossible to read.
lawyer reader
The epilogue of the book explains this very well.
Maurice Grossman

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful By George P. Wood TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on June 11, 2014
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
One day, while I was waiting for my chai latte at the café, a friend noticed Hillel Halkin’s book in my hand and asked, “Who is Jabotinsky?” I should note that my friend is given to reading obscure books by obscurer theologians. But he joked that I had “out-obscured” him this time with my choice of reading.

So, who is Jabotinsky? Why is he worth reading about, especially if you, like me, are a Gentile Christian reader?

The answer to both questions is straightforward: Vladimir “Ze’ev” Jabotinsky (1880–1940) was the founder and leader of Revisionist Zionism. He is worth reading about because of his influence on the Israeli Right, including Menachem Begin, Israel’s first Likud prime minister, and Benjamin Netanyahu, its current Likud prime minister. (Netanyahu’s father, Ben-Zion, was an aide to Jabotinsky.) And his form of Zionism complicates American Christian support for Israel in interesting ways.

That last point requires explication. Christian Zionists typically believe that the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. But the Zionists whose labors brought this about were not particularly observant Jews. (Religious observant Jews in Israel today tend to lean Right, often forming political alliances with Likud.) Moreover, they vigorously disagreed—occasionally to the point of physical fights—on political and military means and ends.

The dominant form of Zionism in the early years was Socialist and largely secular, the predecessor of today’s Israeli Left. (For anticommunist American Christians, this is always something of a surprise.
Read more ›
3 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful By David Shulman on June 18, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Hillel Halkin brings to life in a short and very readable biography, the story of Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940), the founder of Revisionist Zionism. Jabotinsky was far from the prototypical Zionist of the early 20th Century. Being born in the cosmopolitan port city of Odessa, he was far from the shtetls of Poland and Russia. He was far from religious and didn’t really like living in the Palestine of the 1920s.

Nevertheless he was extraordinarily clear-eyed about the future of Zionism. Jabotinsky understood:
• The real need for Jewish Legion to assist in the British invasion of Ottoman Palestine thereby establishing the first organized Jewish fighting force in nearly 2000 years.
• The local Arab population would not be passive to a surge in Jewish immigration. He leads in the formation of the Haganah out of the remnants of the Jewish Legion. The Haganah was the forerunner of today’s Israel Defense Forces.
• The Nazi nightmare would wipe out European Jewry and urged the Jewish community to pack up and leave. He supplied chartered steamers to illegally transport Jews to Palestine.
• The Israeli economy organized along the socialist lines of Labor Zionism would not be viable and urged more market oriented policies.

Halkin discusses in great detail Jabotinsky’s long time and very acrid rivalry with David Ben Gurion. They fought each other for control of the Zionist Organization in the 1930s. To put it mildly they did not like each other and Ben Gurion prevented Jabotinsky’s reburial in Israel until after he stepped down as prime minister in 1964.
Read more ›
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful By Jan Peczkis on July 17, 2014
Format: Hardcover
Author Hillel Halkin introduces the reader to various political movements among Jews. He characterizes the Po'alei Tsiyon [Poale Zion], of which David Ben-Gurion was member, as Marxist. (p. 131). He describes the Revisionist Party as distinct from other forms of Zionism in its paramilitary training and "Zionist monism". (p. 145). The military-style movement was influenced by the Czech Sokol and the Italian fascist Avanguardisti. (p. 145).

The author describes Jabotinsky's travels between European nations and Palestine. One striking feature of this book is its description of massive Arab violence against Jews in Palestine. He also mentions the late 1930's Polish government and its allowance of Betar and Irgun training camps in Poland, albeit with the limitation of not antagonizing Poland's British ally. (p. 214).

Instead of seeing anti-Semitism as entirely irrational and bigoted, Jabotinsky understood anti-Semitism as something that can have understandable causes, such as the economic rivalry among Jews and non-Jews, as in Poland. (pp. 197-198). For more on this, please click on The Jewish war front, and read the detailed Peczkis review.

RIGHT-WING ZIONISM?

The customary distinction between "left wing" and "right wing" is not always informative. The rightist Jabotinsky distanced himself from the socialist views of his youth, but never became an advocate of laissez faire capitalism. He advocated compulsory arbitration of all labor disputes, an extensive welfare state, and active government provision of all the essential needs of every citizen, etc. (p. 161). Jabotinsky always abhorred fascism. (p. 227).
Read more ›
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Most Recent Customer Reviews