Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Shay Rabineau's Walking the Land offers a fascinating history of a largely unstudied topic - the creation of a network of trails in Palestine and Israel since the early 20th century and the development of a thriving recreational culture among natives and visitors. Who would have suspected that trails themselves reveal a slice of a country's history? The author's choice of illuminating maps and evocative photographs will draw the reader right onto the trails."—Jehuda Reinharz, Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History, Brandeis University
"In his deeply original Walking the Land, Shay Rabineau takes what seems like a surface-level issue – hiking trails – and explores their profound implications in and on Zionist thought, Israeli society, and Palestinian national aspirations. He does so with the seriousness of a scholar and the sparkle of a great storyteller who has enjoyed an adventure or two himself on these winding paths."—Christa Case Bryant, former Jerusalem bureau chief for The Christian Science Monitor
"Rabineau's book, in short, offers an authoritative introduction to the history of hiking and trail-marking in the Land of Israel, and it is certain to become a 'go to' work on these phenomena for the foreseeable future."—David Rodman, Israel Affairs
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Note on Transliteration, Translation, and Language Use
Introduction: Israeli Hiking Trails and Their Spatial, National, and Existential Dimensions
1. The Construction of a Jewish Hiking Culture in Palestine, 1904-1935
2. The Palmach and the First Marked Hiking Trail, 1935-1948
3. The First Israeli Hiking Trails, 1949-1963
4. The Foundations of the Country-Wide Trail Network, 1963-1979
5. Completing the Network and Creating a National Trail, 1980-2001
6. Postscripts, 2001-2021
Notes
Bibliography
Index
