Language in Time of Revolution

Benjamin Harshav's `Language in Time of Revolution' plots the trajectory of the rise of Hebrew as a vernacular in Palestine and later Israel; Harshav attempts to show, quite rightly, that the support of Hebrew as the language of the Jewish state was integral to the development of new Jewish society and culture in the Holy Land. Unlike other works on the topic, Harshav is actually interested in exploring the blood and bones of the actual use of the language in the early days of its inception, showing how grass roots the effort to revive Hebrew was; he examines the literary revival of the language, which predated its use as a vernacular, since this is an important component of its history, but this is not overshadowed by the practical and detailed historical dimension of the people who decided to use Hebrew instead of another language in their daily lives. Perhaps the most insightful conclusion Harshav reaches shows how instrumental the rise of Yiddish as a 'world' language was to the formation and rise of Hebrew. The entry of Yiddish onto the stage of Jewish history as a language for politics and revolution slightly pre-dated Hebrew, and gave Hebrew and its proponents a powerful model. For anyone interested in the history of Israeli Hebrew, this book is essential.