Talk: 'David Ben-Gurion and the First Israelis'
October 17, 2019
5:00 pm
Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies
Room: event hall
758 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA
Tom Segev, a leading Israeli historian and journalist, presents his new book “A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion.”
As the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion long ago secured his reputation as a leading figure of the twentieth century. In his definitive biography, Segev uses large amounts of previously unreleased archival material to give an original, nuanced account, transcending the myths and legends that have accreted around Ben-Gurion. The result is a full and startling portrait of a man who sought a state “at any cost”—at times through risk-taking, violence, and unpredictability, and at other times through compromise, moderation, and reason. Segev’s Ben-Gurion is neither a saint nor a villain but rather a historical actor—a twentieth-century leader whose iron will and complex temperament left a complex and contentious legacy that we still reckon with today.
Tom Segev is among Israel’s leading journalists and historians. His works include “The Seventh Million”; “1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East”; “Simon Wiesenthal”; and “One Palestine, Complete” (chosen one of ten best books of 2000 by The New York Times).
Directions:
From the main UMass Amherst campus, head north on North Pleasant Street. The Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies is on the left, just past the traffic circle.
