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Books > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE

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The Masada Myth - Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel (Paperback) Loot Price: R890
Discovery Miles 8 900
The Masada Myth - Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel (Paperback): Nachman Ben-Yehuda

The Masada Myth - Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel (Paperback)

Nachman Ben-Yehuda

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Loot Price R890 Discovery Miles 8 900 | Repayment Terms: R83 pm x 12*

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In 73 A.D., legend has it, 960 Jewish rebels under siege in the ancient desert fortress of Masada committed suicide rather than surrender to a Roman legion. Recorded in only one historical source, the story of Masada was obscure for centuries. In The Masada Myth, Israeli sociologist Nachman Ben-Yehuda tracks the process by which Masada became an ideological symbol for the State of Israel, the dramatic subject of movies and miniseries, a shrine venerated by generations of Zionists and Israeli soldiers, and the most profitable tourist attraction in modern Israel. Ben-Yehuda describes how, after nearly 1800 years, the long, complex, and unsubstantiated narrative of a Romanized Jew, Josephus Flavius, was edited and augmented in the twentieth century to form a simple and powerful myth of heroism. Ben-Yehuda looks at the ways this new mythical narrative of Masada was created, promoted, and maintained by pre-state Jewish underground organizations, the Israeli army, archaeological teams, mass media, youth movements, textbooks, the tourist industry, and the arts. He discusses the various organizations and movements that created "the Masada experience" (usually a ritual trek through the Judean desert followed by a climb to the fortress and a dramatic reading of the Masada story), and how it changed over decades from a Zionist pilgrimage to a tourist destination. Placing the story in a larger historical, sociological, and psychological context, Ben-Yehuda draws upon theories of collective memory and myth-making to analyze Masada's crucial role in the nation-building process of modern Israel and the formation of a new Jewish identity. An expert on deviance and social control, Ben-Yehuda looks inparticular at how and why a military failure and an enigmatic, troubling case of mass suicide (in conflict with Judaism's teachings) were reconstructed and fabricated as a heroic tale.

General

Imprint: University of Wisconsin Press
Country of origin: United States
Release date: 1996
First published: February 1996
Authors: Nachman Ben-Yehuda
Dimensions: 229 x 152 x 24mm (L x W x T)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
ISBN-13: 978-0-299-14834-8
Categories: Books > Humanities > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE
Books > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE
LSN: 0-299-14834-3
Barcode: 9780299148348

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