This book traces the history of Galilee from its biblical roots to the eruption of the Arab-Jewish conflict in 1948, illustrating how modernization in the region was intertwined with mystical beliefs and practices and developed among Palestinians, Orthodox Jews, Christians, and Druze without being a byproduct of Western intervention.
Matt Silver has written a fascinating history of the Galilee region where cultures and religions have both clashed and collaborated for thousands of years, and where many of these same conflicts and layers of cooperation continue until today. Beyond being such a gifted writer and wonderful historian, Matt has lived in the Galilee for decades and was one of the founders of a remarkable and inspiring initiative: the Galilee Jewish-Arab school, where a group of families and educators banded together over 20 years ago to create a school and community in which Arab and Jewish children and adults could learn and live together, creating coexistence and partnership instead of perpetuating the fear, hatred, ignorance and conflict between them. Matt's scholarship and historical research of the Galilee is rooted in his belonging to the region and his commitment to helping build interfaith and intercultural collaboration among its diverse populations. One of the most comprehensive volumes of history on the medieval through the modern period of a region that is little known but very significant for the study of the Middle East and the study of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in this period. There is something for almost every discipline. From Geographers, Geologists, and Philosophers to Legal scholars, Historians, Religious studies, Political Scientists, as well as Economists, finance and anthropologists, rabbis, ministers of all Christian denominations, and even Islamic research scholars. Silver presents a dual history: one an incisive critique of politically and religiously biased scholarship and another of a nuanced multicultural history of the Galilee from Ottoman times to the establishment of the State of Israel on the ruins of the British Mandate.... This volume, the follow-up to Silver's The History of Galilee, 47 BCE to 1260 CE (2021), is a most important contribution to an informative history of "the Greatest Story Never Told," namely, the generally ignored role of the Galilee during the past two millennia. The bibliography is very useful. Highly recommended. General readers through faculty.
