Embodying the Revolution: The Hebrew Experience and the Globalization of Modern Sports in Interwar Palestine (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781978844469)

This original and thought-provoking study offers a fresh perspective on Zionism by exploring Hebrew culture's ambivalent attitude toward modern sports. Drawing on extensive archival sources and contemporary literary theories, it focuses on Zionism's surprising anxiety toward sports during the interwar heyday of "muscular Judaism," revealing an unusual society in which athletes failed to attain national pride and distinction. Addressing themes such as the body, language, space, immigration, internationalism, amateurism, gender, and militarization, Embodying the Revolution presents an innovative reading of Jewish life in Mandate Palestine, linking the marginalization of sports to the meaning and experience of the Zionist Revolution. Idels' compelling interpretation of the appeal of sports, selfhood, and the compromises inherent in radical aspirations--narrated from the periphery of the interwar global rise of sports--challenges contemporary assumptions that dismiss ideology as an elitist myth.

Author: Ofer Idels
ISBN-10: 1978844468
ISBN-13: 9781978844469
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Language: English
Published: 10/14/2025
Pages: 156
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs