This course examines the social, political, and cultural interactions between the Jewish and Arab communities in Palestine, from the arrival of the first Zionist settlers until the 1948 war, which resulted in the founding of the State of Israel and the flight and expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs. The goal for the course is for students to become familiar with competing historiographical interpretations of the period in question. Assigned readings will include studies by Anita Shapira; Benny Morris; Rashid Khalidi; and Nur Masalha, and the memoirs of Edward Said and Amoz Oz. Evaluations will be based on responses to discussion questions on the collab website; two take-home exams; and two 8-10 page papers. This class fulfills the non-western history requirement for history majors.

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