Brian J. Horowitz, Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Russian Years, 1900–1925. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020. 231 pp.

Abstract

Abstract This chapter reviews Brian J. Horowitz's Vladimir Jabotinsky's Russian Years, 1900–1925 (2020). This book focuses on Vladimir Jabotinsky's transformation from a supporter of liberalism in Russia to a Zionist who advocated extreme conservatism in the mid-1920s. Most leaders of Zionism — who were committed either to democratic socialism or simply to a democratic state in Palestine — were appalled by his support of policies that, in certain respects, seemed to resemble fascism. Horowitz seeks to explain Jabotinsky's dramatic ideological changes by raising the following questions: “Was [he] a liberal posing as a reactionary with liberal residue, a democrat with dictatorial leanings, or a dictator with nostalgia for democracy?” In presenting these questions, Horowitz indicates the complexity of Jabotinsky's political career and, in consequence, the difficulty in categorizing his political convictions.