This book provides a new, original description and analysis of a crucial period in Israel’s history and the history of the Middle East through the lens of the charming, lesser known, energetic, yet problematic persona of Israel’s third prime minister, Levi Eshkol. It examines Eshkol’s career from his arrival in Ottoman Palestine as a socialist pioneer in 1914, to his roles as the Czar of Israel’s rural settlement efforts before and after independence, his major contribution to the absorption of the waves of immigration in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, his decisive role in the development of Israel’s economy, and his controversial role as PM and Minister of Defence all the way to the Six Day War of 1967 and the subsequent ramifications. The author used newly opened domestic and foreign archives in his research.