War, Jews and the New Europe

Mark Levene is Reader in Comparative History at the University of Southampton and a member of the Parkes Institute for Jewish/non-Jewish Relations. Much of his current work relates to his multi-volume project, Genocide in the Age of the Nation-State, volumes 1 and 2 of which appeared in 2005. He is also concerned with wider environmental issues, most particularly anthropogenic climate change, and is co-founder (with David Cromwell) of Crisis Forum (the Forum for the Study of Crisis in the 21st Century) as well as founder of Rescue!History.

• List of maps Abbreviations A Note on TransliterationIntroductionPart 1: The Challenge of War The Challenge to the Community • The Challenge to the Conjoint • The Power of the JewsPart II: Wolf and the Zionists Palestine as Propaganda • The Ideological Rift • Zionism verus Bolshevism • The End of the ConjointPart III: The Jews as a National Minority National Autonomy • The Breakup of Empires • The Struggle with the Polish National Committee • The Art of CompromisePart IV: The Peace Problems • A Case in Point: Romania • French, American, and Other Jewish Delegations • The New States Committee and the Peace SettlementConclusion: In Alliance with the British?Appendix: The Polish Minority Treaty, 1919 References Index

'A book of the first importance and of great originality ... a remarkable achievement.' Max Beloff 'An academic work of immense knowledge and scholarship. It is recommended as a well-written, highly detailed, and accurate assessment of the diplomacy of Lucien Wolf.' Baron Frankal 'Impressive ... has implications well beyond the exploration of one man's diplomatic activity on behalf of British and British-Jewish interests ... Levene demonstrates brilliantly that Wolf was a pragmatist with formidable intellectual resilience ... richly detailed, but most readable work.' David Cesarani, Jewish Chronicle 'Illuminates a critical episode in an unconventional discipline, pre-1948 Jewish diplomatic history. Herein lies the great strength of the book: Levene does not treat his subject like a normative segment of diplomatic history; he is sensitive to the facts that there was no army or government backing up Wolf, and that any impact he might possibly have made must be seen as extraordinary ... Levene achieves an impressive critical distance from his subject, and this will possibly place his work among the more authoritative interpretations in the long run ... superb study ... Levene's research and judgments are meticulous without being pedantic ... an immensely valuable book, which will be of interest to scholars in Anglo-Jewish history, east European Jewish history and politics, Zionist history, diplomatic history, and those interested in the eternally grey zone between peoples, ethnic groups, and publicly recognized nations while the world is crashing down.' Michael Berkowitz, AJS Review 'Substantially documented, suggestive.' Eugene C. Black, Times Literary Supplement