Pappe's history of Palestine is a unique contribution to the history of a troubled land. It begins with the Ottomans in the early 1800s, and traces a path through the British mandate to the establishment of the state of Israel.

Introduction: A New Look at Modern Palestine and Israel --Fin de Siecle (1856-1900): Social Tranquillity and Political Drama -- The Rural Landscape and its People -- Urban Palestine and its Society -- A Society without Politics -- Globalization of the Local Economy -- The Political Economy of 'Modern Palestine' in the 1880s -- Invading Civil Society: The Making of the Modern Ottoman State (1876-1900) -- End of an Era: Rural Chieftains and the A'ayan -- New Beginnings and New Influences -- The Zionist Impetus -- A New Crusade: Templars, Colonists and Profiteers -- Between Tyranny and War (1900-1918) -- Palestine in the last years of Abdul Hamid (1900-1908) -- The Arrival of Zionism -- Palestine in the Aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution (1908-1916) -- Palestine in the First World War -- The Mandatory State: Colonialism, Nationalization and Cohabitation -- Allenby's Palestine -- The Nationalization of the Cities (1918-1920) -- The End of 'Southern Syria' -- Early Years of the Mandate (1920-1929) -- Where Politics and Society Met: The 1929 Watershed -- The Making of the Zionist Enclave (1929-1936) -- The Pauperization of Rural Palestine (1929-1936) -- Questions of Leadership and Nationalism (1930-1936) -- The 1936 Revolt -- The 1939 White Paper -- Encountering Nationalism: the Urge for Cohabitation -- Palestine in the Second World War -- Between Nakbah and Independence: The 1948 War -- The UNSCOP Days -- The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (March-May 1948) -- The Palestine War (May 1948-January 1949).