CCDC Book Club – June 29th

The CCDC Book Club will be meeting on Monday, June 29th @6:00pm.

This month, we’ll discuss Israel: What Went Wrong? by Omer Bartov.

The distinguished historian Omer Bartov was born on a kibbutz, grew up in Tel Aviv, and served in the Israel Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War. He went on to become a leading scholar of the German army and the Holocaust, before turning his attention to his native country.

In Israel: What Went Wrong?, Bartov sketches the tragic transformation of Zionism, a movement that sought to emancipate European Jewry from oppression, into a state ideology of ethno-nationalism. How is it possible, he asks, that a state founded in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, an event that gave legitimacy to a national home for the Jews, stands credibly accused of perpetrating large-scale war crimes? How do we come to terms with the fact that Israel’s war of destruction is being conducted with the support, laced with denial and indifference, of so many of its Jewish citizens?

The Games Ethic and Imperialism: Aspects of the Diffusion of an Ideal, by J. A. Mangan, is a landmark 1986 book that explores how the “games ethic” (the moral and cultural values of sport) from British public schools spread throughout the British Empire. It argues that organized sports like cricket and rugby were used to instill Victorian ideals of manliness, discipline, and fair play, which were seen as essential for creating loyal and effective imperial administrators and soldiers. The book is a key text in the history of sport and imperialism, analyzing the cultural and psychological aspects of this diffusion. 

 Pick up a copy and join us!

The discussion will be held at Cortland County Democratic Committee Headquarters: 129 Port Watson St, Cortland, NY