A free-access reading list. Free = open to read online. Public domain = no restrictions. Open PDF = downloadable. Borrow = read free on Internet Archive (14-day loan, not a download). Video = recorded talk.

Primary Texts & Founding Documents

Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (Der Judenstaat), 1896
Public domain Open ↗
Walter Benjamin, On the Concept of History, 1940
Free Open ↗
Hannah Arendt, Zionism Reconsidered (excerpt)
Free Open ↗
Gershom Scholem, Redemption Through Sin
Free Open ↗
Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized
Borrow Open ↗

Theory: Trauma, Historiography, Frankfurt School

Dominick LaCapra, Writing History, Writing Trauma
Borrow Open ↗
Dominick LaCapra, Writing History, Writing Trauma — chapter 1
Open PDF Open ↗
Joan W. Scott, Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, 1986
Open PDF Open ↗
Marianne Hirsch, Rethinking Holocaust Memory after October 7, 2024
Free Open ↗
Marianne Hirsch, Postmemory — definition & bibliography
Free Open ↗

Israeli Historians & Sociologists

Zeev Sternhell, The Founding Myths of Israel
Borrow Open ↗
Baruch Kimmerling, Politicide
Borrow Open ↗
Baruch Kimmerling, The Invention and Decline of Israeliness
Borrow Open ↗
Jacqueline Rose, The Question of Zion
Borrow Open ↗
Jacqueline Rose, Bearing Witness to Atrocities — lecture
Video Open ↗
Omer Bartov, I'm a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It, 2025
Free (repository) Open ↗

Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Diasporism

Shaul Magid, The Necessity of Exile
Publisher preview Open ↗
Shaul Magid & Daniel Boyarin, The No-State Solution — conversation
Free Open ↗
George Steiner, Our Homeland, the Text
Free Open ↗

Yeshayahu Leibowitz

Yeshayahu Leibowitz, sourced quotations
Free Open ↗

Decolonization, Holocaust & Nakba

Yoav Di-Capua, Arab Existentialism
Open PDF Open ↗
Hannan Hever et al., The Holocaust and the Nakba — introduction
Free Open ↗

Open Repositories — bookmark these

Internet Archiveborrow full books free (14-day loans)
Open ↗
Project Gutenbergpublic-domain full texts
Open ↗
Marxists Internet Archivefree full texts (Benjamin, Frankfurt School)
Open ↗
Public Booksopen-access critical essays
Open ↗
Posen LibraryJewish culture & civilization texts
Open ↗
JSTORfree tier: 100 article reads every 30 days with a free account
Open ↗