Britain, Palestine and Empire: The Mandate Years

In 1948, British troops withdrew from the Palestinian lands, ending over 30 years of the British Mandate of Palestine. This title takes a fresh look at the years of the British mandate; its politics, economics, and culture. It addresses themes such as religion, mandatory administration, economic development, violence, and decolonization.

In 1948, British troops withdrew from the Palestinian lands, ending over 30 years of the British Mandate of Palestine. What followed in the area now known as Israel, Palestine, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, has been well-documented and is perhaps one of the most intractable problems of the post-imperial age. However, relatively little has been written about the years of the British mandate and the long-standing connection between Britain and Palestine in the years up to May 1948. This volume takes a fresh look at the years of the British mandate; its politics, economics, and culture. Contributors address themes such as religion, mandatory administration, economic development, policing and counter-insurgency, violence, art and culture, and decolonization, in the context of imperial power and a highly complex Palestinian society. The book will be valuable to scholars of the British mandate, but also more broadly to those interested in imperial history and the history of the West's involvement in the Middle East.

Introduction
Flawed foundations: the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine mandate, James Renton
The impact of League oversight on British policy in Palestine, Susan Pedersen
'Our Jerusalem': Bertha Spafford Vester and Christianity in Palestine during the British mandate, Heleen Murre-van den Berg
Views of Palestine in British art in wartime and peacetime, 1914-1948, Antoine Capet
'Unholy statistics in the Holy Land': the fallacy of growth in the Palestine rural economy during the 1920s and 1930s, Amos Nadan
The Peel Commission and partition, 1936-1938, Penny Sinanoglu
Lawlessness was the law: British armed forces, the legal system and brutality in Palestine during the Arab revolt, 1936-39, Matthew Hughes
'An oriental Ireland': thinking about Palestine in terms of the Irish question during the mandatory era, Rory Miller
Sir Alan Cunningham and the view from Government House, 1945-48, Motti Golani
Index.