Theodor Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism

An original and brilliant thesis, exposing a long misunderstood figure. A great book. --Bernard Avishai

Excellent . . . a highly revealing portrait that demolishes Herzl-the-icon. --Michael Marrus

Other biographers . . . have illuminated aspects of [Herzl's] life, but none has been able to produce the kind of intellectual biography that we have here. Jacques Kornberg has done an admirable job of plumbing the depths of Herzl's mind to try to come to an understanding of just why he became a Zionist and why he was literally consumed with promoting Zionist goals. --Cithara

With compassion and critical balance, placing his subject well within his Austrian milieu, Kornberg analyzes Herzl's rhetoric, tergiversations, and profound ambivalence over his politics and identity. --Choice

. . . a masterful display of the sources . . . --American Historical Review

. . . stimulating, provocative and agreeably iconoclastic . . . powerful and compelling. --German History

A novel and provocative explanation of Theodor Herzl's founding of Zionism as a way of resolving his personal crisis over his Jewish identity.

Author: Jacques Kornberg
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 11/22/1993
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.18lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.63d
ISBN: 9780253332035

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 10/15/1993

About the Author

JACQUES KORNBERG teaches history at the University of Toronto. The author of articles on German intellectual history and on Zionism, he is editor of At the Crossroads: Essays on Ahad Ha-Am.