| Description |
1 online resource (xv, 351 pages) : illustrations |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Summary |
The mining of diamonds, their trading mechanisms, their financial institutions, and, not least, their cultural expressions as luxury items have engaged the work of historians, economists, social scientists, and international relations experts. Based on previously unexamined historical documents found in archives in Belgium, England, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United States, this book is the first in English to tell the story of the formation of one of the world's main strongholds of diamond production and trade in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s. The history of the diamond-cutting industry, characterized by a long-standing Jewish presence, is discussed as a social history embedded in the international political economy of its times; the genesis of the industry in Palestine is placed on a broad continuum within the geographic and economic dislocations of Dutch, Belgian, and German diamond-cutting centers. In providing a micro-historical and interdisciplinary perspective, the story of the diamond industry in Mandate Palestine proposes a more nuanced picture of the uncritical approach to the strict boundaries of ethnic-based occupational communities. This book unravels the Middle-eastern pattern of state intervention in the empowerment of private capital and recasts this craft culture's inseparability from international politics during a period of war and transformation of empire. |
| Contents |
Diamonds and War; Contents; List of Tables; List of Figures; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction: Global and National: War, Diamonds, and the Colonial State; Chapter 1. Palestine as an Alternative; Chapter 2. The Making of a Monopoly; Chapter 3. Diamond Work and Zionist Time; Chapter 4. The Challenge and Its Constraints; Chapter 5. Labor Unrest; Chapter 6. Liberation and Liberalization; Chapter 7. Crisis and Restructuring; Chapter 8. Reproducing the Pact; Appendices; Endnotes; Bibliography; Index. |
| Note |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode |
| Local Note |
JSTOR Books at JSTOR Open Access |
| Subject |
Diamond cutting industry -- Palestine -- History -- 20th century.
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Diamond cutting industry. |
|
History. |
| Chronological Term |
20th century |
| Subject |
Diamond industry and trade -- Palestine -- History -- 20th century.
|
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Diamond industry and trade. |
| Chronological Term |
1900-1999 |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
|
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Electronic books.
|
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History.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: De Vries, David, 1954- Diamonds and war. New York : Berghahn Books, 2010 (DLC) 2009025358 |
| ISBN |
9781845458003 (electronic book) |
|
1845458001 (electronic book) |
|
9781845456337 (electronic book) |
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1845456335 (electronic book) |
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9781789201178 (electronic book) |
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1789201179 (electronic book) |
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