The Palestinian peasant economy under the Mandate: a story of colonial bungling

Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

Abstract

Challenging the claim that Palestine's peasant economy progressed during the 1920s and 1930s, Amos Nadan skillfully integrates a wide variety of sources to demonstrate that the period was actually one of deterioration on both the macro (per capita) and micro levels. The economy would have most likely continued its downward spiral during the 1940s had it not been for the temporary prosperity that resulted from World War II. Nadan argues that this deterioration continued despite the British authorities' channeling of funds from the Jewish sector and the wealthier Arab sectors into projects for the Arab rural economy. The British were hoping that Palestine's peasants would not rebel if their economic conditions improved. These programs were, on the whole, defective because the British chose programs based on an assumption that the peasants were too ignorant to manage their farms wisely, instead of working with the peasants and their own institutions.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationCambridge, Mass
PublisherDistributed for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of Harvard University by Harvard University Press
Number of pages370
ISBN (Print)0674021355, 0932885314, 9780674021358, 9780932885319
StatePublished - 2006

Publication series

NameHarvard Middle Eastern monographs
PublisherDistributed for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of Harvard University by Harvard University Press
Volume37

ULI Keywords

  • uli
  • Agriculture and politics -- Eretz Israel
  • Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- Eretz Israel
  • Land use, Rural -- Eretz Israel
  • Mandates -- Eretz Israel
  • Eretz Israel -- Rural conditions -- 20th century
  • Mandates -- Palestine
  • Mandates -- Israel

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