Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947

Anonymous Soldiers examines the critical period in the establishment of Israel, chronicling three decades of growing anticolonial unrest that culminated in the end of British rule and the UN resolution to create two separate states. Drawing on previously untapped archival resources in London, Washington, D.C., and Jerusalem, the book tells the story of how Britain, in the twilight of empire, struggled and ultimately failed to reconcile competing Arab and Jewish demands and uprisings.

Leading expert on terrorism Bruce Hoffman shines new light on the bombing of the King David Hotel, the assassination of Lord Moyne in Cairo, the leadership of Menachem Begin, the life and death of Abraham Stern, and much more. Above all, Hoffman shows exactly how the underdog “anonymous soldiers” of Irgun and Lehi defeated the British and set in motion the chain of events that resulted in the creation of the formidable nation-state of Israel.

Bruce Hoffman is the director of the Center for Security Studies and director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is the author of Inside Terrorism (1998), and The Failure of British Military Strategy within Palestine, 1939-1947 (1983), and during his tenure as a Distinguished Scholar at the Wilson Center conducted research for the recently-released Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947 (2015). Previously a Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar, he served as a Distinguished Scholar from May 2012 through January 2013. Professor Hoffman was also a Public Policy Scholar in 2010, and is a Wilson Center Global Fellow with the International Security Studies Program. 

This event is co-sponsored with the Middle East Program