Men of Capital: Scarcity and Economy in Mandate Palestine

by Sherene Seikaly

Men of Capital examines British-ruled Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s through a focus on economy. In a departure from the expected histories of Palestine, this book illuminates dynamic class constructions that aimed to shape a pan-Arab utopia in terms of free trade, profit accumulation, and private property. And in so doing, it positions Palestine and Palestinians in the larger world of Arab thought and social life, moving attention away from the limiting debates of Zionist–Palestinian conflict. Reading Palestinian business periodicals, records, and correspondence, Sherene Seikaly reveals how capital accumulation was central to the conception of the ideal "social man." Here we meet a diverse set of characters―the man of capital, the frugal wife, the law-abiding Bedouin, the unemployed youth, and the abundant farmer―in new spaces like the black market, cafes and cinemas, and the idyllic Arab home. Seikaly also traces how British colonial institutions and policies regulated wartime austerity regimes, mapping the shortages of basic goods―such as the vegetable crisis of 1940―to the broader material disparities among Palestinians and European Jews. Ultimately, she shows that the economic is as central to social management as the political, and that an exclusive focus on national claims and conflicts hides the more complex changes of social life in Palestine.

Genres: History, Economics, Middle East, Grad School, Politics

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 11, 2015

About the author

Sherene Seikaly is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Seikaly is the editor of the Arab Studies Journal, co-founder and co-editor of Jadaliyya e-zine, an editor of Journal of Palestine Studies, a policy member of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, and an advisory member of R-Shief Online Archive Project. Seikaly's Men of Capital: Scarcity and Economy in Mandate Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2016) explores how Palestinian capitalists and British colonial officials used economy to shape territory, nationalism, the home, and the body. She has published in academic journals such as International Journal of Middle East Studies and Journal of Middle East Women's Studies as well as in online venues including Jadaliyya, Mada Masr, and 7iber.

Reviews

[Chloe Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for class but I appreciate the insight and approach of this work -- underscoring the importance of studying Palestinian commercial elites and their role in defining modernity vis a vis the establishment of the concept of the "social men," that is deeply rooted in capital accumulation and the growing economics knowledge.

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written for a more academically minded audience, Seikaly explores the intersections between British colonial rule of Palestine and the economic elite seeking both tutelage at the hands of the British (and the West more broadly) and independence from the British and the ability to resist the growing Zionist presence in Palestine.