Major Farran's Hat

The Untold Story of the Struggle to Establish the Jewish State

By David Cesarani
(Da Capo Press, Hardcover, 9780306818455, 320pp.)

Publication Date: August 2009

Other Editions of This Title: Paperback

Categories: Europe - Great Britain - General, Jewish - General, Middle East - Israel

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David Cesarani, one of Britain’s leading historians, is Research Professor in History at Royal Holloway, London University, and author of the award-winning Becoming Eichmann. He has published widely on Jewish history and the history of Zionism. He lives in London.

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British historian David Cesarani's new book, Major Farran's Hat, is a nonfiction account of the final days of the British mandate in Palestine. More at NPR.org

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Kirkus Reviews, 7/1/09
“A pointedly argued account of the relentless violence by both British and Jewish groups that brought about the end of the British rule in Palestine. In this…cogent work, the author demonstrates how the British ‘special squads’ descended into criminality-and were matched in their militancy by Jewish groups such as the Irgun. Sound, sober, historical documentation.”

Booklist
“This is a necessary reminder about the underside of empire and the creation of nations.”

Washington Times
“A soundly researched history of an event worth remembering…A book worth having and referring to when contemplating the critical postwar years of the Palestine Mandate.”

Forbes.com
“Riveting and dramatic”

Washington Jewish Post
“Cesarani resurrects a long-forgotten murder of a young Jewish boy in Jerusalem that may have lessons for us today.”

The Jerusalem Post
“A wonderful book…riveting, persuasive”

New York Post, 9/13
“Cesarani dons his thriller cap to tell how Britain’s use of violent and extralegal activities helped hasten losing its mandate in Palestine.”

Jewish Book World, Spring 2010
“A gripping, suspenseful account of a government’s intentional perversion of justice. Treating the Rubowitz case as a microcosm of the struggle for a Jewish state sheds new light on these world-historical events as well as on the case itself.”

Multicultural Review, Spring 2010
“A highly recommended and fascinating book…Readers interested in British or Jewish history and crime will find this book very intriguing… [with] important lessons for Iraq and Afghanistan.”