Customer Reviews

Mandate Days: British Lives in Palestine, 1918-1948

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In this compact book the stories of British lives in Palestine is told through their diaries and life experiences. This is not the story of war or occupation or colonialism or polemic we are used to but a poignant fair account of individual people trapped in a hard situation, living their everyday lives. We learn of the early mandate, of Zionism and anti-Semitism among the English officers and their wives. We learn about the riots, the various governors, the Palestinian revolt, the Jewish terrorism, the war years when Rommel seemed on the border of victory, all these things and more. An immensely fair account given the nature of the story and the subsequent controversy, this book, more than most, perhaps captures the truth behind `colonialism' it wasn't a racist terrible thing made up of brutal unfeeling people, rather the colonialists were everyday people concerned with themselves and the events around them and usually working to improve the lots of the country to which they had entrusted their lives. The mandate period is fascinating and this is a fair and just picture of it.

Seth J. Frantzman

"Indubitably fascinating, even romantic, the peoples of the East were assumed to be incapable in their irrationality and technological backwardness of deciding their own interests, and were therefore to be guided by Britain, gently if possible, firmly if necessary, towards a better future."... "British officials and their wives... virtually all assumed without question that rule over non-Europeans, throughout large areas of the globe, was simply part of the natural order." This pretty much sums up the turn-of-the-century imperial thought. The book, primarily sourced from the vast reams of private correspondence in various museums and libraries, is a harsh but lyrical look at the British establishment of the Jewish National Home under Mandate, and its tragic saga over 30 years.

This is an incredible work of archival sourcing and editing, and a fantastic read.