Old-New Land [“Altneuland”].

HERZL, Theodor. Translated by Lotta Levensohn. Preface by Stephen S. Wise.

Item Number: 135944

New York: Block Publishing Co, 1941.

First edition in English of Herzl’s classic work. Octavo, original cloth. Translated from the original German by Lotta Levensohn. With a preface by Stephen S. Wise. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Rare.

Published six years after Herzl's political pamphlet, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), utopian novel Old New Land expanded on Herzl's vision for a Jewish return to the Land of Israel and has become one of Zionism's establishing texts. The novel depicts Herzl's blueprint for the realization of Jewish national emancipation. Both ideological and utopian, it presents a model society which was to adopt a liberal and egalitarian social model, resembling a modern welfare society. Herzl called his model "Mutualism" and it is based on a mixed economy, with public ownership of the land and natural resources, agricultural cooperatives, welfare, while at the same time encouraging private entrepreneurship. A true modernist, Herzl rejected the European class system, yet remained loyal to Europe's cultural heritage.