The interrupted system : Israeli civilians in war and routine times
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The interrupted system : Israeli civilians in war and routine times
Transaction Books, c1985
- : cloth
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
According to all accepted criteria, Israel has developed a refined universe of social science research, yet the sociology of war, in a society whose brief history is described by "rounds" of war, is utterly lacking. Baruch Kimmerling's monumental work is an effort to correct this glaring omission. He does so by calling upon the best in survey research along with a deep reexamination of the classical social science literature on conflict and consensus.
Israeli society is characterized by a large army of reserves, citizen-soldiers mobilized into military service during an emergency. One such emergency was the 1973 war; another the 1982 war. Kimmerling's approach is to treat such conflicts as temporary but powerful interruptions in many social processes. These episodic events not only lead to changing conceptions of mobilization, but higher risks stemming from potential loss of life and injury, shortages, and conceptions of disaster. This is a work which takes seriously both institutional requirements and personal traumas, and is thus very much in the mainstream of social analyses.
Kimmerling and his research assistant Irit Backer have come up with most unusual data to measure stress and strain, occupational background of these citizen-soldiers, relationships between normal work and military tasks, the impact of such conflicts on migration patterns-among other truly unusual ways of getting at the topic of an "interrupted" system.
This is a book written with a controlled passion, and no mere data-mon-gering activity. The author understands the high costs which Israelis pay to be part of the "club." He sees interruption as an integral part of a chronic conflict situation. Curiously he sees the special features of the Israeli system, when viewed in tandem with external pressures and conflicts, as enabling Israel to strike a balance which enables it to persevere. This is a critical work, but spares the reader fatuous policy recommendations.
by "Nielsen BookData"