This volume continues the narrative account of
the history of the kibbutz movement from the outbreak of the Second World War
onwards. This period included a number of dramatic and complex developments:
the effects of the world war and the Holocaust on the kibbutzim and their youth
movements; the political struggles which led to the end of the British mandate;
the War of Independence, including the role of the Palmach and the political
controversy it engendered; the crises which followed the establishment of the
State of Israel and the politics of the kibbutz movement in the early years of
independence; and the kibbutzim’s gradual adaptation to their new position in
Israeli society and to the problems and challenges of a multi-generational
society in the late twentieth century.

Although the detailed narrative ends in 1977
(when the Israeli political system, and the status of the kibbutz, underwent a
radical change), it is followed by a detailed overview describing the many
developments which took place between 1977 and 1995.





 Much of the material is new in any language, and
virtually all is new in English. Throughout, economic developments, immigration
and agricultural settlement, political and ideological issues, and internal
social developments are presented as interdependent and as vitally affected
by—and often affecting—the changing fortunes of the Jewish people, the Zionist
movement, and the Jewish community in Palestine/Israel. But the kibbutzim are
also presented as a special instance of a widespread social phenomenon:
communal and co-operative societies.