Diamonds and War

State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84545-633-7
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, 362 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 716 g

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 Based on previously unexamined historical documents found in archives in Belgium, England, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United States, this book is the first in English to tell the story of the formation of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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Vries, David De

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Arbeitsmarkt
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Gewerkschaften, Industrielle Beziehungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures and Tables

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Map

Introduction

Global and National: War, Diamonds and the Colonial State

Chapter 1. Palestine as an Alternative

Preconditions

Local Initiatives

The Pressure of the War

The Logic of Limited Expansion

Chapter 2. The Making of a Monopoly

Effects of the Occupation

Organizing Capital

Power and Contestation

Chapter 3. Diamond Work and Zionist Time

The Reign of the Small Stone

Gain and Discipline

Facing the 'Triangular Thread'

Splintering Labor's Voice

Zionist Legitimacy

Chapter 4. The Challenge and its Constraints

In Antwerp's Absence

The Politics of Supply

Adamant London

Accountability and Vindication

Chapter 5. Labor Unrest

Actors and Issues

The First General Strike

Labor-Capital

Rapprochement

Propensity to Strike

The Long Showdown

Chapter 6. Liberation and Liberalization

Contrasts at War's End

Incipient De-Control

Deregulation

Chapter 7. Crisis and Restructuring

Reversal of Fortunes

National Intervention

Labor's Moment

Chapter 8. Reproducing the Pact

State of Transition

The Pact

Epilogue

Appendices

Table A.1 Explanation of Names of Diamond Factories in 1930-1950 Palestine

Table A.2 Establishment of Diamond Factories in Palestine, 1937-1941

Table A.3 Origins of Main Owners of Diamond Factories in Palestine, November 1941

Table A.4 Diamond Factories (PDMA Membership), Palestine November 1944

Table A.5 Diamond Factories (PDMA Membership), Palestine November 1946

Table A.6 Diamond Cooperatives in Palestine/Israel, 1946-1949

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Vries, David De
David De Vries is an Associate Professor at the Department of Labor Studies at Tel Aviv University, Israel. He studied history at the LSE and Warwick University. A social historian, his primary research interests are modern labor and business history of Palestine and Israel. His publications include Idealism and Bureaucracy in 1920s Palestine: The Origins of ‘Red Haifa’ (1999, in Hebrew) and Dock Workers: International Explorations in Labor History, 1790–1970 (2000, co-edited). Currently he is writing on strikes in Israeli history and is involved in a project on new perspectives in the business history of the modern Middle East.

David De Vries is an Associate Professor at the Department of Labor Studies at Tel Aviv University, Israel. He studied history at the LSE and Warwick University. A social historian, his primary research interests are modern labor and business history of Palestine and Israel. His publications include Idealism and Bureaucracy in 1920s Palestine: The Origins of ‘Red Haifa’ (1999, in Hebrew) and Dock Workers: International Explorations in Labor History, 1790–1970 (2000, co-edited). Currently he is writing on strikes in Israeli history and is involved in a project on new perspectives in the business history of the modern Middle East.