Reddit reviews A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time

I read this book a while back, A History of Israel. I felt it was very accurate and well structured, and for sure does not let Israel off the hook. Only problem is that he is not impartial when it comes to religious involvement in Israel's politics, using very negative and unnecessary language about them.

Of course, however I have to warn you that I prefer to have very holistic view thus I want to read the whole context...

• A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time by Howard M. Sachar who is Professor Emeritus of History and International Affairs at George Washington University. I selected his book not only because it is used as university text book, not only because writers academic record, but because writer has personal connection, he is Jewish. His book covers very well not only history of Israel, but also history of Zionism and its roots. I would say that while the book tries to be neutral, I would say it has more critical outlook on Jews and Israelis.
  
• The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk who is renounced journalists with long career as middle-east correspondent for the The Independent. The book covers more or less everything that has happened since Soviet invasion to Afghanistan to present day. While only part of the book covers Israel, and in very critical manner to put it mildly, it in a sense sets so well the mood to madness that is called the middle-east that it is just so good reading. Note, Robert Fisk is not academic, but his book is well sourced and he himself is an eyewitness with long career and experience.
  
• A History of the Arab Peoples: With a New Afterword by Albert Hourani who was renounced British historian of Lebanese christian descent. I am currently reading this book, but already I have had many moments with it. It should be mentioned that he worked before and during the Israeli war of Independence at the Arab Office in Jerusalem and London, where he helped prepare the Arab case for the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry.
  
  I would recommend these three books as I believe they give very wide context. I would say that history of Zionism deals the most with the conflict and gives really view, at least from the Jewish side, on what happened and why. I think that after I have completed History of Arab Peoples I would want to read some more from the Arab side, but it is quite hard to find good writers with excellent academic credentials.

Konflikten mellan Israel och Palestina är långt mer mångfacetterad (boktips) än så, så det är ett dåligt exempel. Jag skulle för övrigt vara väldigt intresserad av att se ditt resonemang bakom hur religion var orsaken till t ex Andra världskriget, eller något annat av de krig som tagit flest människoliv.

Try this one:

https://www.amazon.com/History-Israel-Rise-Zionism-Time/dp/0375711325/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0375711325&pd_rd_r=GT7ZNFWCZ9F3CC1DF5SJ&pd_rd_w=hWSc0&pd_rd_wg=dQNrU&psc=1&refRID=GT7ZNFWCZ9F3CC1DF5SJ

A history of Israel: from the rise of Zionism to our time gives a pretty comprehensive overview of the whole conflict and really help me understand it a lot better. But beware the book is about 1000 pages long so you should only read it if you enjoy purely historical literature.

http://www.amazon.com/History-Israel-From-Rise-Zionism/dp/0375711325

I read this book by Howard Sachar in a course I took in college, though it covers the era immediately preceding the foundations of the modern state of Israel. It seemed pretty fair to me, but then I grew up in an evangelical Christian household where Israel could do no wrong. He also wrote a book about the modern state. While I haven't read it, it does look promising.

This looks like another good one and probably has a better mix of Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. Pricey, though :(.

I've got Howard M. Sachar's A History of Israel and Ilan Pappe's A History of Modern Palestine. So far so good.

e: Shlomo Ben-Ami's Scars of War, Wounds of Peace looks promising, too.