JPS “Hidden Gems” and “Greatest Hits”: Capitalism in Palestine; A Historical Snapshot
Keywords: 
precapitalist economy
global capitalist markets
agricultural products
the sea
commodification
Abstract: 

In addition to selecting a “greatest hit” and a “hidden gem,” here, Sreemati Mitter provides readers with a broad overview of Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS) content on the topic of capitalism in Palestine. Mitter singles out Alexander Schölch’s classic, “The Economic Development of Palestine, 1856–1882” (1981) as a greatest hit and Peter Lagerquist’s haunting “Vacation from History: Ethnic Cleansing as the Club Med Experience” (2006) as a hidden gem. Read together, she argues, these two pieces help elucidate how powerful forces of global market capitalism converged on Palestine’s storied Mediterranean coast to shape its economy in the mod-ern period.

Author biography: 

Sreemati Mitter is the Kutayba Alghanim Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern History and International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Her work examines the economic and financial dimensions of statelessness.