"This Very Short Introduction discloses a history of Zionism from the origins of modern Jewish nationalism in the 1870's to the present. Michael Stanislawski provides a lucid and detached analysis of Zionism, focusing on its internal intellectual and ideological developments and divides"-- Provided by publisher.

The Jews: religion or nation? -- Modern Jewish nationalism, 1872-1897 -- Theodor Herzl and the creation of the Zionist movement, 1897-1917 -- The Weizmann era and the Balfour Declaration -- Socialist and revisionist Zionisms, 1917-1939 -- Zionism in World War II and its aftermath -- Zionism in a Jewish state, 1948-1967 -- Nationalism and messianism, 1967-1977 -- Swing to the right, 1977-1995 -- Transformations of Zionism since 1995.