Catastrophe Remembered

The 1948 Palestine War is known to Israelis as 'the War of Independence'. But for Palestinians, the war is forever the Nakba, the 'catastrophe'. The war led to the creation of the State of Israel and the destruction of much of Palestininan society by the Zionist forces. For all Palestinians, the Nakba has become central to history, memory and identity. This book focuses on Palestinian internal refugees in Israel and internally displaced Palestinians across the Green LIne. It uses oral history and interviews to examine Palestinian identity and memory, indigenous rights, international protection, the 'right of return', and a just solution in Palestine/Israel. Contributors include several distinguished authors and scholars such as William Dalrymple, Prof. Naseer Aruri, Dr. Ilan Pappe, Prof. Isma'il Abu Sa'ad and Dr. Nur Masalha.

This book focuses on Palestinian internal refugees in Israel and internally displaced Palestinians across the Green LIne. It uses oral history and interviews to examine Palestinian identity and memory, indigenous rights, international protection, the 'right of return', and a just solution in Palestine/Israel.

Spencer D. Segalla examines natural and anthropogenic disasters during the years of decolonization in Algeria, Morocco, and France and explores how environmental catastrophes impacted the dissolution of France’s empire in North Africa.

Memories of catastrophes--both those which occur naturally and those which are consequences of human actions--loom large in the modern consciousness. The volume opens with an investigation of the concepts of catastrophe and collective memory, and the relationships between them. Arguing that a pervasive catastrophic memory may be as disabling as it is instructive, Gray and Oliver stress the necessity of rendering the phenomenon subject to secular critical inquiry. The value of such an approach is then demonstrated in a series of case studies.

In one of the most sensational and perplexing incidents in naval history, Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt, a much-voyaged veteran and outstanding officer, drowned along with more than 800 crew and many civilian visitors, male and female, on a calm summer’s morning and in a familiar anchorage. This new work examines that tragedy – the sudden capsizing at Spithead on 29 August 1782 of the mighty flagship HMS Royal George. This is the first comprehensive account of the calamity and is based on a wide variety of contemporary sources, including reports by survivors and eyewitnesses. It discusses such issues as how and why she sank; on whom, if anyone, the blame should fall; the number and nature of the casualties; and the disaster's impact on the nation's psyche, including its treatment in literature. In its pages are encountered, by name and fate, some of the hitherto anonymous seamen who were on the ship and who lived to become the last remaining survivors; these included the only woman to be picked up alive, out of perhaps 300 who were on board. As well as describing the sinking, the book provides information never before uncovered on the life and career of Kempenfelt, whose flagship Royal George was, ranging from his hitherto unknown maternal ancestry (through which it is shown that he was related to his great contemporary, Admiral Rodney) to accounts of his whereabouts when the ship sank. These call into question the now-set-in-stone scenario in William Cowper's famous poem, which depicts Kempenfelt writing in his cabin when she foundered. Although the Royal George has receded from national memory in recent years, the tragedy was for a long time front and centre in representations of British naval culture, and this absorbing account – part detective story, part historical narrative – will bring to a new audience an extraordinary tale from the heyday of Britain’s naval power.

The war of 1948 in Palestine is a conflict whose history has been written primarily from the national point of view. This book asks what happens when narratives of war arise out of personal stories of those who were involved, stories that are still unfolding. Efrat Ben-Ze'ev examines the memories of those who participated and were affected by the events of 1948, and how these events have been mythologized over time. This is a three-way conversation between Palestinian villagers, Jewish-Israeli veterans, and British policemen who were stationed in Palestine on the eve of the war. Each has his or her story to tell. These small-scale truths shed new light on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as it was then and as it has become.

Explores the transmission - and perpetuation - of conflict narratives in Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian society since the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Analyzes the labor experience of Israeli Palestinian women, arguing that state policies and widespread discrimination hinder their labor force participation and success.