Publication date:
30 March 2006Length of book:
216 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksDimensions:
228x159mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780739112724
Nearly all empirical work in political science is fundamentally historical, yet very little attention has been given to the problem of grounding claims to historical knowledge. In Writing the Arab-Israeli Conflict Jonathan B. Isacoff constructs the nature of historical knowledge by deftly examining the multiple histories of the Arab-Israeli conflict written by generations of Israeli scholars. He also undertakes briefer analysis of literature, drawn from both historians and political scientists of the Vietnam War, demonstrating that historical revisionism is not unique to the study of the Middle East. Focusing on different schools of historical interpretation Writing the Arab-Israeli Conflict argues for a pragmatist approach in the tradition of John Dewey. Most importantly, this exceptional work suggests a number of practical methodological measures that can be taken to produce more sophisticated and nuanced political science scholarship.
In a work largely concerned with the treatment of history in political science, Isacoff argues that the resolution to the problem of hisotrical inquiry lives in John Dewey's pragmatism. Isacoff uses the orignal and critical historical accounts of the Arab-Israeli conflict to demonstrate this. He argues that political scientist should approach the historical record as necessarily problematic, with an eye toward solving contemporary political problems.