Invention of Ancient Israel

Keith W. Whitelam is Professor of Religious Studies and Head of Department at the University of Stirling. He is the co-author of The Emergence of Early Israel in Historical Perspective (1987), and has produced a series of articles on ancient Israelite and Palestinian history.

• Introduction: The Silencing of Palestinian History, 1. Partial Texts and Fractured Histories, 2. Denying Space and Time to Palestinian History, 3. Inventing Ancient Israel, 4. The Creation of an Israelite State, 5. The Continuing Search, Reclaiming Palestinian History, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

'Anyone who feels K's work 'can be safely ignored' will only show himself up as a fool.' - History Geography and Society'An important contribution to the history of scholarship.' - Expository Times'This is a brave, fascinating and important book ... constantly thought provoking and controversial.' - Sunday Times'Keith Whitelam's work serves to remind us what a vital if fraught exercise it still is to engage explicitly with the unique cultural influence of the Old Testament on the contemporary world.' - The Friend'It is a masterly, courageous work, the result of careful reading, focused reflection and the appropriate moral passion, which richly deserves wide exposure and will surely prompt siginificant discussion.' - Heythrop Journal'Whitelam can (and will) be criticized for introducing politics into 'ancient Israel', he is merely exposing it - and the Palestinians are after all the major victims of a zionizing European and American biblical scholarship. This book should be in paperback, and compulsory reading.' - Journal for the Study of the Old Testament