Gil Troy

"Published by the University of Nebraska Press as a Jewish Publication Society book."

Visions for the Jewish Homeland—Then, Now, Tomorrow

The Zionist Ideas

Alan Dowty

Michael Brenner

Yaakov Ariel

Ranen Omer-Sherman

Rachel S. Harris

Maoz Azaryahu

Steven Bayme

David Ellenson

Donna Robinson Divine

David Makovsky

Norman Stillman

Arnon Golan

Yedidia Stern

"An excellent tool in Middle Eastern politics classes [and] an intellectual resource for experts who want to learn more about the complexities of Israel."— Reading Religion Americans debate constantly about Israel, its place in the Middle East, and its relations with the United States. Essential Israel examines a wide variety of complex issues and current concerns in historical and contemporary contexts to provide readers with an intimate sense of the dynamic society and culture that is Israel today, providing a broader and deeper understanding to inform the conversation. The expert contributors to this volume address the Arab-Israeli conflict, the state of diplomatic efforts to bring about peace, Zionism and the impact of the Holocaust, the status of the Jewish state and Israeli democracy, foreign relations, immigration and Israeli identity, as well as literature, film, and the other arts. This unique and innovative volume provides solid grounding to understandings of Israel's history, politics, culture, and possibilities for the future.

Essays for the 21st Century

Essential Israel

Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today

Why I Am a Zionist

Arthur Meier Schlesinger

Fred L. Israel

Becomethe definitive reference on the subject.

History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2008

Professor of History Gil Troy, PH D

The presidential couple has become an important factor in national politics since the Roosevelts, and an in-depth examination of the most recent presidential pairs yields in-sights on the workings on a public partnership.

From the Trumans to the Clintons

Mr. and Mrs. President

Did America's fortieth president lead a conservative counterrevolution that left liberalism gasping for air? The answer, for both his admirers and his detractors, is often "yes." In Morning in America, Gil Troy argues that the Great Communicator was also the Great Conciliator. His pioneering and lively reassessment of Ronald Reagan's legacy takes us through the 1980s in ten year-by-year chapters, integrating the story of the Reagan presidency with stories of the decade's cultural icons and watershed moments-from personalities to popular television shows. One such watershed moment was the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. With the trauma of Vietnam fading, the triumph of America's 1983 invasion of tiny Grenada still fresh, and a reviving economy, Americans geared up for a festival of international harmony that-spurred on by an entertainment-focused news media, corporate sponsors, and the President himself-became a celebration of the good old U.S.A. At the Games' opening, Reagan presided over a thousand-voice choir, a 750-member marching band, and a 90,000-strong teary-eyed audience singing "America the Beautiful!" while waving thousands of flags. Reagan emerges more as happy warrior than angry ideologue, as a big-picture man better at setting America's mood than implementing his program. With a vigorous Democratic opposition, Reagan's own affability, and other limiting factors, the eighties were less counterrevolutionary than many believe. Many sixties' innovations went mainstream, from civil rights to feminism. Reagan fostered a political culture centered on individualism and consumption-finding common ground between the right and the left. Written with verve, Morning in America is both a major new look at one of America's most influential modern-day presidents and the definitive story of a decade that continues to shape our times.

How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980's

Morning in America

A critical look at American Ambassador to the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan's valiant stand against its 1975 declaration of Zionism as a form of racism shows just how much — and how little — Moynihan's moment accomplished, and how relevant it remains today.

America's Fight Against Zionism as Racism

Moynihan's Moment

See How They Ran explores why candidates campaign as they do, why Americans complain about it, and what these evolving patterns and changing images tell us about American democracy itself. On the eve of every election, many Americans become convinced that this presidential campaign is worse than it has ever been. Frustrated, we long for the good old days of dignified campaigns and worthy candidates. However, as Gil Troy’s fascinating history demonstrates, they never existed. Originally, candidates did not run for office, but awaited the people’s call in dignified silence. When Stephen Douglas campaigned in 1860, he pretended to be visiting his mother as he traveled, not actively campaigning. In the post-1945 world, however, both Democratic and Republican candidates have stopped to kiss babies, donned hard hats, and pumped hands along the campaign trails. From the founding of our nation, Americans have wanted a leader who is simultaneously a man of the people and a man above the people. In See How They Ran, Troy shows that our disappointment with current presidential campaigns is simply the latest chapter in a centuries-long struggle to make peace with the idea of leadership in a democratic society. This is an engrossing and essential read.

See How They Ran

Natan Sharansky

A classic account of courage, integrity, and most of all, belonging In 1977, Natan Sharansky, a leading activist in the democratic dissident movement in the Soviet Union and the movement for free Jewish emigration, was arrested by the KGB. He spent nine years as a political prisoner, convicted of treason against the state. Every day, Sharansky fought for individual freedom in the face of overt tyranny, a struggle that would come to define the rest of his life. Never Alone reveals how Sharansky's years in prison, many spent in harsh solitary confinement, prepared him for a very public life after his release. As an Israeli politician and the head of the Jewish Agency, Sharansky brought extraordinary moral clarity and uncompromising, often uncomfortable, honesty. His story is suffused with reflections from his time as a political prisoner, from his seat at the table as history unfolded in Israel and the Middle East, and from his passionate efforts to unite the Jewish people. Written with frankness, affection, and humor, the book offers us profound insights from a man who embraced the essential human struggle: to find his own voice, his own faith, and the people to whom he could belong.

Prison, Politics, and My People

Never Alone

Joe King

David J. Azrieli

Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism begins with the long and troubled history of the Jewish people that informed the nineteenth-century idea of Zionism: the search for a homeland. After surviving anti-Semitic laws and pogroms, Jewish refugees faced not only the ultimate crime against humanity, but also the shocking indifference of the West when they were turned back from safe havens. Far from weakening the spirit, these combined tragedies strengthened their collective will. In Canada, Jewish immigrants created communities, pooled their resources, and rose to become captains of industry, among them the Bronfmans, the Batshaws, and the Hayes. They organized and actively pursued the goals of nationhood in Palestine. Richly illustrated and extensively researched, Rekindling the Torch celebrates the struggle of the Canadian Jewish people and their contributions to the state of Israel. Excerpt from Rekindling the Torch from the Preface by David J. Azrielli: ,br> The remarkable accomplishments of Canadian Zionism have left their marks across their length of the tiny land of Israel: in the arts and sciences, business and education, on all seven university campuses, in the forests lovingly planted in once barren hills. Their extraordinary contributions to the Jewish State, on an organizational and individual basis, have inspired industrial development, changed the way Isarelis shopped and even livedâ¦ More than a decade ago, when I served as president of the Canadian Zionist Organization, I promised myself that this exceptional story would be told, that the most outstanding figures in Canadian Zionist history be identified and their accomplishments described. With the great assistance of the Joe King and Gil Troy, herewith is that story. In researching and writing this book, we have delved into dusty archives and jogged the memories of many of the principals to ensure that the tale was truly well told. I believe that with the publications of this book, we have recorded the unique and important role played by Canadians as momentous partners in the historic reappearance on the world scene of a Jewish State after an absence of twenty centuries.

The Story of Canadian Zionism

Rekindling the Torch

Chronicles the life of former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, focusing on her activities during the ten years leading up to her national prominence and her influence on her husband's presidential administration.

Polarizing First Lady

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Gil Troy

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