My Struggle for Peace, Vol. 1 (1953-1954)

[T]he most important thing Sharett contributed to the state is the personal diary he wrote during his tenure as prime minister. It is difficult to overstate the importance of those eight volumes to the study of the 1950s and to the understanding of Israeli history as a whole.

-- Tom Segev, September 12, 2003 * Haaretz *

Moshe Sharett was a compulsive writer. He enjoyed the very act of writing, the flavour of the words and the quest for precision of expression . . . [T]his is by no means a diary kept at leisure. Most of it was written under the extremely heavy pressure of work and great mental strain, very often in the middle of the night when he was on the verge of physical exhaustion. Standing out above all [the Diary's revelations] is the moral force which dominated Sharett's personality. This extraordinary diary, besides being a unique human document, is a treasure trove for the student of Israel's contemporary history and invaluable for the understanding of one of its crucial periods.

-- Joshua Justman, May 4, 1979 * The Jerusalem Post *

The editors did not merely edit and translate the text; they vastly improved on the Hebrew version by adding Sharett's speeches, reports, cabinet minutes, and other sources to the text . . . These additions makes this work so important and welcome by all who aspire to understand the foreign and defense policies of Israel in its first decade.

* Israel Studies Review *

The wealth of material enhanced by Sharett's eloquence and per-ceptive eye turn the diary into an indispensable source of Israel's history in its first decade and for several aspects of Israeli politics, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Israel's relationship with the international system. In sum, the large community of researchers and lay readers interested in Israeli politics, Arab-Israeli relations, and Middle Eastern politics should be grateful to Neil Caplan and Yaakov Sharett for this herculean effort.

-- Itamar Rabinovich * Bustan: The Middle East Book Review *