Bidspirit auction | Menachem Begin - The Revolt

Menachem Begin - The Revolt - The Story of the Irgun - English edition. Presentation copy inscribed and signed by the author - “The Revolt: Story of the Irgun” by Menachem Begin, Hadar Publishing, Tel Aviv, 1964 - English edition. Memoirs written by Begin, commander of the Irgun, describing the underground organization’s activities against the British Mandate authorities in the Land of Israel during the 1940s. Presentation copy inscribed and signed by the author: “To Mrs. Mhindia this book is dedicated – in friendship” signed: ״M. Begin״ and dated: Hamilton, January 1966. Accompanied by an invitation to the “Shalom” event held in the presence of Begin at the “Beit Yaakov” Synagogue on February 7, 1976. The English edition of Menachem Begin’s book, “The Revolt”, translated by Irgun member Shmuel Katz, is among the most influential texts in the political and military literature of the 20th century, and constitutes a foundational document for understanding the struggle for Israel’s independence. Begin used the English edition, first published in the early 1950s, as his principal instrument of advocacy before the Western world. It presented the worldview of the Irgun not as a terrorist organization, as it was perceived by the British Mandate authorities, but as a legitimate national liberation movement fighting against foreign rule. In his book, Begin analyzes the strategy of the “revolt” – rendering the rule of the occupying power politically and economically untenable, rather than seeking the direct military defeat of an empire. The book was also studied by the African National Congress (ANC), and by Nelson Mandela after he went underground in 1960, who referred to the book as one of the works he used as a guide in planning the ANC’s guerrilla warfare against the apartheid government of South Africa. [2], 386, [4] pages. Hardcover with the original dust jacket. Light tears to the dust jacket. Slight warping to the book’s pages.