Our American Israel

Fascinating…could hardly be more timely. – Andrew Bacevich * The Spectator *
Revelatory…Our American Israel is a tour de force……The first work to describe, fully and rigorously, America’s relationship with Israel in terms of the profound cultural ties that bind the two countries so closely together and to examine their evolving relationship over several generations. – Rashid Khalidi * The Nation *
Keen analysis…Kaplan’s approach is so fresh, her command of the sources so solid, and her prose so engaging that both casual readers and experts will find new insights in the book. – Walter Russell Mead * Foreign Affairs *
Our American Israel is an incisive, urgently necessary excavation of the cultural meanings of the U.S.-Israeli relationship by one of the most perceptive cultural historians of the United States. It sheds powerful light on a troubled past and disturbing present, revealing the ways that narratives of similarity and connection were wielded against the demands of human rights and social justice. – Paul A. Kramer, author of The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines
Kaplan’s tour of literature and film shows how common understandings of Israel and the U.S. have been shaped—and distorted, as with the Trump administration’s relocation of the American embassy to Jerusalem. A useful reading of history and politics in the light of mythmaking and media. * Kirkus Reviews *
Kaplan often confronts us with facts of history that are sometimes awkward and uncomfortable…But no American who loves and supports Israel can afford to ignore the arguments that she makes. * Jewish Journal *
Shows how the special relationship between Israel and the US (or even its Jewish population) was never preordained or inevitable. Rather, like any international relationship, it has been molded by a series of cultural and political mediations. In the tradition of critical scholarship Kaplan uncovers the constructedness of US approaches to the State of Israel and so contributes much to our understanding of it…Kaplan’s study is of immense importance to anyone who wishes to study Israel in American culture in the past, present, or future. – David Hadar * American Literary History *
A perceptive and revealing survey of the elements that have led to widespread popular support for Israel in the United States. – Ian J. Bickerton * Australasian Book Review *
Paints a picture of a United States determined to remain in a highly problematic relationship, periodically struggling to justify its forgiveness of and allegiance to a nation often at odds with their own international policy and philosophy…an exciting, well-written, and insightful study of American cultural perceptions of Israel. – Miriam Eve Mora * Journal of Jewish Identities *
Drawing on new archival sources and brilliant analysis, [this book] breaks new scholarly ground…joins a distinguished list of scholarship on the U.S.-Israel relationship. – Alex Lubin * Journal of Palestine Studies *
The best…of a surprisingly few books that analyze the cultural foundations of the U.S.-Israeli ‘special relationship’…an important, well-constructed, and also well-illustrated book. – Walter L. Hixson * Washington Report on Middle East Affairs *

Amy Kaplan was Edward W. Kane Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. The author of Our American Israel, The Anarchy of Empire in the Making of U.S. Culture, and The Social Construction of American Realism, she was a past president of the American Studies Association and was awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.