Vladimir Jabotinsky's Russian Years, 1900-1925 [Paperback]

In the early 20th century, with Russia full of intense social strife and political struggle, Vladimir Yevgenyevich (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky (18801940) was a Revisionist Zionist leader and Jewish Public intellectual. Although previously glossed over, these years are crucial to Jabotinsky's development as a thinker, politician, and Zionist. Brian Horowitz focuses on Jabotinsky's commitments Zionism and Palestine as he embraced radicalism and fought against antisemitism and the suffering brought upon Jews through pogroms, poverty, and victimization. Horowitz also defends Jabotinsky against accusations that he was too ambitious, a fascist, and a militarist. As Horowitz delves into the years that shaped Jabotinsky's social, political, and cultural orientation, an intriguing psychological portrait emerges.

Brian Horowitz holds the Sizeler Family Chair in Jewish Studies at Tulane University. He is author of many articles and books on European and American Jewry, includingEmpire Jews,Jewish Philanthropy and Enlightenment in Late-Tsarist Russia,Russian IdeaJewish Presence, and most recentlyThe Russian-Jewish Tradition.

Horowitz provides a very readable and comprehensive account of the evolution of Jabotinsky's views. As an accomplished and well-recognized scholar of Russian literature and cultural life, he also consistently and with great profit to his argument, elucidates the main features of the Russian environment in which Jabotinsky functioned, first in Russia and then in exile.

This is a well-researched, convincing political biography of one of the central figures in the history of Zionism and modern Jewish politics. The author carefully traces Jabotinsky's intellectual and political developments from his youthful flirtations with Jewish politics in the Russian empire to his position as a burgeoning leader of Zionist opposition immediately after World War I. The book is based on a wide range of Russil³,