"An original and brilliant thesis, exposing a long misunderstood figure. A great book." Bernard Avishai
"Excellent... a highly revealing portrait that demolishes Herzl-the-icon." Michael Marrus
"Other biographers... have illuminated aspects of Herzl s] life, but none has been able to produce the kind of intellectual biography that we have here. Jacques Kornberg has done an admirable job of plumbing the depths of Herzl s mind to try to come to an understanding of just why he became a Zionist and why he was literally consumed with promoting Zionist goals." Cithara
"With compassion and critical balance, placing his subject well within his Austrian milieu, Kornberg analyzes Herzl s rhetoric, tergiversations, and profound ambivalence over his politics and identity." Choice
..". a masterful display of the sources... " American Historical Review
..". stimulating, provocative and agreeably iconoclastic... powerful and compelling." German History
A novel and provocative explanation of Theodor Herzl s founding of Zionism as a way of resolving his personal crisis over his Jewish identity."