Beautiful documentation of the people and places in 1962. There were "no television sets" in Israel at the time.

The author is a veteran American journalist, has traveled widely in the Balkans and the Middle East, published an account of war-time experiences in the Balkans (WWII), and is a biographer of David Ben-Gurion and Gamal Abdel Nasser.

In the chapter titled "The Enduring Spell of Antiquity", Robert St.John notes that although the country had little (remaining) mineral wealth, the entire region is a trove of priceless archeological and scientific potential. Discoveries in Israel shed light on "the origins of humanity itself". [117] Around 4000 BC, artifacts from the chalcolithic period--carved maces, scepters and crowns--were carved by people living eight miles from the Cave of Letters where Bar-Kokhba people had barricaded themselves in 132 AD, 62 years after the destruction of the Second Temple. We now know that almost every acre of tillable land in the Negev had been farmed. [118]. Israeli archaelogists have shown that the Nabataean masters of the desert 2,000 years ago used irrigation methods as advanced as ours.

Dead Sea Scrolls. The author re-tells the familiar story of recovery of the Scrolls in 1947 when two Bedouin boys entered a dark cave where they found earthen jars containing parchment scrolls. The scrolls include the entire Book of Isaiah, antedating the oldest previously-known Hebrew text by at least a thousand years. A number of the scrolls describe an apocalyptic military struggle, and a community resembling a monastic order. The historian Pliny had described "Essenes" who lived on the west side of the Dead Sea, above the town of Ein Gedi, where the scrolls were found. [120] ( )

NO OF PAGES: 160 SUB CAT I: Israel SUB CAT II: SUB CAT III: DESCRIPTION: Ten chapters: Land of the Book, Highway of History, Ancient Prophecy Fulfilled, The Ingathering of Exiles, Establishing a Democratic System, Desert Brought to Bloom, Fusing of Faith and Arts, Enduring Spell of Antiquity, Concern for Minorities, MaturingNOTES: SUBTITLE: LIFE World Library

915.6

Photos and narrative about the history, establishment and early development of Israel