Cross Roads to Israel - Christopher Sykes
Cross Roads to Israel
A Masterful, Lucid, and Unrivalled Historical Exposition of Palestine from Balfour to Bevin
A Masterful, Lucid, and Unrivalled Historical Exposition of Palestine from Balfour to Bevin
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Cross Roads to Israel
- Sub-title: Palestine from Balfour to Bevin
- Author: Christopher Sykes
- Publisher: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, London / Glasgow
- Publication Date: 1 January 1965
- ISBN-10: Not Issued (Pre-dates standard implementation)
- Edition Details: First Edition, First Printing. Standard Hardcover Release.
- Binding: Original publisher’s premium cloth boards, spine sharply lettered in gold gilt, housed in the original typographic dust jacket.
- Physical Format: Octavo (8vo), 479 pages.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Exterior / Cloth Boards: The structural cloth binding is in an excellent state of preservation, remaining exceptionally flat, square, and structurally rigid. The spine architecture is perfect, firm, and entirely free of unseemly lean or structural cracking, with the gold gilt lettering staying brilliantly bright and unrubbed.
- Interior: The text block is robustly bound, tight, and completely square. Internal pages are beautifully clean, clear, crisp, and intact, showing no signs of foxing, user underlining, highlighting, or dog-ears.
- Preservation: Upgraded with a professional, archival-grade removable cellophane cover to insulate the binding from dust and handling wear.
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The Dust Jacket: Very Good (VG)
- Condition: The original typographic jacket is vibrant and complete, exhibiting only slight, standard signs of minor edge wear and light handling wrinkles along the upper perimeter. It is free from prominent sun-fading, large chips, or deep tape repairs.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in 1965 by Collins, Cross Roads to Israel stands as a definitive, magisterial milestone work tracking the intricate political and tragic history of the establishment of the State of Israel.
Published in 1965 by Collins, Cross Roads to Israel stands as a definitive, magisterial milestone work tracking the intricate political and tragic history of the establishment of the State of Israel.
Acclaimed historian Christopher Sykes expertly chronicles the complex half-century saga starting from the historic 1917 Balfour Declaration, traversing the highly volatile years of the British Palestine Mandate, and examining the formative first 17 years of the new state. Sykes' narrative is globally renowned for its extraordinary objectivity, lucid analysis, and fair, deeply sympathetic treatment of the immense challenges faced by successive British governments tangled in conflicting wartime promises. By examining the shifting diplomatic alliances from Arthur Balfour to Ernest Bevin, the text moves beyond standard partisan accounts to look directly at the socio-political crossroads that reshaped the modern Middle East. A permanent landmark study, this rare first edition remains compulsory, vital reading for serious academics, historians, and collectors of twentieth-century international relations, British mandatory history, and foundational Judaica.
Author Profile: Christopher Sykes
Christopher Sykes (1907–1986) was a highly distinguished British author, historian, and BBC producer. The son of the prominent diplomat Sir Mark Sykes (co-signatory of the historic Sykes-Picot Agreement), Christopher possessed an unparalleled background and insider intimacy with the grand strategies of twentieth-century British statecraft. Widely praised for his elegant prose style and rigorous use of official archives, his landmark volumes—including his masterful biography of Orde Wingate and Four Studies in Loyalty—solidified his legacy as one of the post-war era's most perceptive, wise, and analytical social historians.
Christopher Sykes (1907–1986) was a highly distinguished British author, historian, and BBC producer. The son of the prominent diplomat Sir Mark Sykes (co-signatory of the historic Sykes-Picot Agreement), Christopher possessed an unparalleled background and insider intimacy with the grand strategies of twentieth-century British statecraft. Widely praised for his elegant prose style and rigorous use of official archives, his landmark volumes—including his masterful biography of Orde Wingate and Four Studies in Loyalty—solidified his legacy as one of the post-war era's most perceptive, wise, and analytical social historians.
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