Alex Winder | Brown University (original) (raw)
Papers by Alex Winder
Voices of the Nakba, 2021
Journal of Palestine Studies, 2021
![Research paper thumbnail of Anticolonial Uprising and Communal Justice in Twentieth-Century Palestine [link to full text in Abstract]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/63608517/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Radical History Review, 2020
This article examines the strategies, structures, and practices that allowed for the emergence of... more This article examines the strategies, structures, and practices that allowed for the emergence of communities without police institutions during two Palestinian uprisings, the 1936–39 revolt and the 1987–91 intifada. For each period, the article identifies efforts to disengage from and disempower the state police, to establish alternative systems of anticolonial justice, and to employ disciplinary violence to serve the imperatives and enforce the decisions of Palestinian nationalist bodies. In particular, Palestinian systems of anticolonial justice drew on communal reconciliation (sulh) and other preexisting local iterations of communal justice. These local forms relied on discourses of egalitarianism and consensus, which produced stability in periods of upheaval but also obscured the inequalities they reproduced. Ultimately, the anticolonial structures that Palestinians established proved unable to withstand intense internal and external pressure, and some elements of the coercive forces that served them were absorbed into state police institutions.
[For full article, go to: read.dukeupress.edu/radical-history-review/issue/2020/137]
AlMuntaqa, 2019
This paper argues that diaries are in themselves a kind of historical writing—individual in scale... more This paper argues that diaries are in themselves a kind of historical writing—individual in scale and scope, but wide-ranging in content and style. Reading diaries as histories rather than as historical documents, offers new perspectives from which to understand Palestinians’ experiences of the Nakba. In particular, this paper draws on the Nakba-era diaries of Khalil al-Sakakini and Muhammad ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Shrouf, to suggest potential contributions of reading diaries as history rather than texts from which fragments can be mobilized to augment, confirm, or illuminate narrative histories. Khalil al-Sakakini was one of the giants of Palestinian intellectual and political life in the twentieth century, and his diaries encompass nearly half a century, extending from 1907 to 1953. Meanwhile, Muhammad ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Shrouf (1913–1994) was of a different generation and a different milieu than Sakakini. Though far less prominent, and less prolific, than Sakakini, Shrouf’s diaries nevertheless provide an extensive record of the life of a Palestinian villager and subaltern during a crucial period of social, political, and economic transformation. Overall, the assessment of these two works will place Sakakini’s and Shrouf’s diaries within the context of Palestinian and Arab diaries, discussing their generic distinction from other kinds of personal accounts and even other published diaries, before discussing what in particular may be gained by reading these diaries as Nakba histories.
Journal of Palestine Studies , 2018
Seventy years after the Nakba, what does it mean to commemorate 1948? This introduction to three ... more Seventy years after the Nakba, what does it mean to commemorate 1948? This introduction to three articles drawn from the 2018 New Directions in Palestinian Studies workshop at Brown University, “The Shadow Years: Material Histories of Everyday Life,” examines the emergence of 1948 as the primary focus of Palestinian commemorative practices and guiding star of future political possibilities, as well as the promise and limitations of the settler-colonial framework. It argues that widening our lens to include the material histories of everyday life in the context of a generational struggle for survival contextualizes moments of great trauma and violence within the larger dynamics of Palestinian society, and recasts the time/space architecture of narratives about Palestine and the Palestinians.
Jerusalem Quarterly, 2018
Introduction to a special issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly with a focus on policing, incarceratio... more Introduction to a special issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly with a focus on policing, incarceration, and securitization in and around Jerusalem.
This chapter discusses the rise to prominence of Ahmad Hamad al-Mahmud Abu Jilda, a bandit from T... more This chapter discusses the rise to prominence of Ahmad Hamad al-Mahmud Abu Jilda, a bandit from Tammun, Palestine, in the early 1930s. It explores the popularity of Abu Jilda as a figure of resistance to British Mandate rule and sees in his actions and the discourse around him a foreshadowing the widespread 1936-1939 Revolt. In so doing, it addresses questions of popular versus elite nationalism in Mandate Palestine.
Jerusalem Quarterly, 2015
Najati Sidqi (1905–1979) was a leading figure in Arab and Palestinian communism. A leader of the ... more Najati Sidqi (1905–1979) was a leading figure in Arab and Palestinian communism. A leader of the trade union movement in Palestine during the 1920s and 1930s, he represented the Palestine Communist Party in the Comintern and was one of the very few Arab socialists – despite his claims below – to join the antifascist struggle in Spain. He contributed significantly to the political and cultural journalism of the Left in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Sidqi’s description of his experiences in Spain was published in the Beirut-based journal al-Tali‘a (The Vanguard) in June 1938, under the title “Five Months in Republican Spain: The Memoirs of an Arab Fighter in the International Brigades.” It seems that this was to be the first of several pieces written by Sidqi for the journal, but no further installments
exist. However, a full account can be found in Sidqi’s memoirs (Mudhakkirat Najati Sidqi), published in Arabic by the Institute for Palestine Studies in 2001. Sidqi’s 1938 article, translated and annotated here by Alex Winder, remains valuable as a record of the time, uninfluenced by the knowledge of the outcome of the Spanish Civil War or by Sidqi’s experiences in the Communist party afterward. Based on the situation as it stood in August 1936, two months after the formation of the United Socialist party, Sidqi’s assessment is rather idealistic and reflects the optimism that prevailed in the early days of the war among the ranks of the International Brigades. No mention is made of the deadly factionalism of the Leftist forces, which contributed to the eventual defeat of the Republicans. The only critique he makes of the opposition is a well-mannered attack on the anarchist forces and their “divisive role” in the trade union movement; as he puts it, “they are barking up the wrong tree . . . and the future is a guarantee to solve their problems.”
Biography, 2014
This article uses diary entries recorded by a Palestinian villager from outside Hebron to explore... more This article uses diary entries recorded by a Palestinian villager from outside Hebron to explore individual Palestinian subjectivities and experiences in the immediate aftermath of the 1948 war; tropes of village life and displacement in Palestinian national narratives; and the difficulties and possibilities presented by diaries in approaching Palestinian history and life writing.
Jerusalem Quarterly, Sep 2013
Journal of Palestine Studies, Nov 2012
This article analyzes the outbreak of the deadly 1929 riots in Palestine. Focusing on Jerusalem, ... more This article analyzes the outbreak of the deadly 1929 riots in Palestine. Focusing on Jerusalem, Safad, and Hebron, the cities most significantly affected by the events, the article sees the violence as attempts to reinforce, redefine, or reestablish communal boundaries. It argues that patterns of violence in each city can help us under- stand how these boundaries had been established and evolved in the past, as well as the ways in which new forces, in particular the economic, political, and social influence of the Zionist movement and the rise of nationalist politics among the Palestinian Arabs, had eroded older boundaries.
Book Reviews by Alex Winder
The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 2021
northwest and the earlier production of coffee in the Guajira and Sierra Nevada were cut from the... more northwest and the earlier production of coffee in the Guajira and Sierra Nevada were cut from the same cloth. Marijuana Boom also paints a diverse image of the actors and interests at play in the region, in Bogotá, and in the United States. Whereas the marijuana industry flourished because of US and upper-class Colombian buyers, Britto contends that the production and commercialization of marijuana was a product of the rural popular classes. Marimberos were important figures because of their practical knowledge of and familiarity with the cultural values of the Guajira and Sierra Nevada, which allowed them to navigate between indigenous labor sources and US buyers. In a historiography dominated largely by US perspectives, Marijuana Boom provides much needed context on the political, social, and cultural consequences of the drug trade in Colombia. Britto's study also complicates the "narcoticization" of US-Colombian relations, centered largely on the cocaine industry, by bringing to light the 1970s marijuana boom and its consequences. Her work is a must-read for students and scholars of drug control history, commodity studies, and those using the history of drugs to explore new topics in the broader histories of producer nations.
Archiv Orientální: Journal of African and Asian Studies, 2018
Archiv Orientální: Journal of African and Asian Studies, 2018
This is a review of the 2016 book "From Ambivalence to Hostility: The Arabic Newspaper Filastin a... more This is a review of the 2016 book "From Ambivalence to Hostility: The Arabic Newspaper Filastin and Zionism, 1911–1914," by Emanuel Beška (published by Slovak Academic Press), which addresses coverage of Zionism in the Jaffa-based Arabic newspaper Filastin in the late Ottoman period.
Jerusalem Quarterly, 2018
Review of Yael Berda, Living Emergency: Israel’s Permit Regime in the West Bank (Stanford Univers... more Review of Yael Berda, Living Emergency: Israel’s Permit Regime in the West Bank (Stanford University Press, 2018)
This is a review of the exhibition "Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People under Heaven" at the Metrop... more This is a review of the exhibition "Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People under Heaven" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from September 2016 to January 2017, and its accompanying catalog, edited by Barbara Drake Boehm and Melanie Holcomb.
Review essay of: Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917–... more Review essay of: Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917–1948, by Noah Haiduc-Dale; The Storyteller of Jerusalem: The Life and Times of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, 1904–1948, by Wasif Jawhariyyeh, edited and introduced by Salim Tamari and Issam Nassar, translated by Nada Elzeer; Memoirs of an Early Arab Feminist: The Life and Activism of Anbara Salam Khalidi, by Anbara Salam Khalidi, translated by Tarif Khalidi; and “This Is Jerusalem Calling”: State Radio in Mandate Palestine, by Andrea L. Stanton
Jerusalem Quarterly, Nov 2013
Journal of Palestine Studies, 2008
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Books by Alex Winder
تنتمي "يوميات الشروف" إلى سلسلة من السير الشخصية تصدرها مؤسسة الدراسات الفلسطينية عن تاريخ فلسطين... more تنتمي "يوميات الشروف" إلى سلسلة من السير الشخصية تصدرها مؤسسة الدراسات الفلسطينية عن تاريخ فلسطين الاجتماعي، وأصبحت تعرف بـ "دراسات التابع" (subaltern studies)، أي الرؤية البديلة من كتابات النخبة. وكان الهدف من هذه السير استشراف الحياة الاجتماعية لكتاب من أوساط شعبية، انتمى أصحابها إلى خلفيات متباينة من المهن والمدارك، وقد شملت سابقاً مذكرات كل من: خليل السكاكيني (مربّ)؛ واصف جوهرية (موسيقي)؛ نجاتي صدقي (كاتب ومناضل)؛ إحسان الترجمان (جندي عثماني).
تعالج مدونات محمد عبد الهادي الشروف حياته في أربع مراحل: عمله ضابط شرطة في منشية يافا والبلدة القديمة وقرية يازور خلال العقد الأخير من الانتداب البريطاني؛ حرب 1948 مع بداية الاشتباكات في يافا وجبل الخليل بين المليشيات الصهيونية والمقاومة العربية بعد قرار التقسيم؛ عودته إلى بلدته نوبا، حيث انغمس في إعادة بناء ما تبقى من أرضه بعد أن استولت إسرائيل على الأغلبية العظمى من أراضي ما أصبح يسمى القرى الأمامية (خاراس، نوبا، بيت أولا) في منطقة الخليل؛ وأخيراً، انتقاله بعد النكبة إلى العمل المضني في مناجم الفوسفات في الأردن على غرار عشرات الآلاف من أهالي فلسطين.
Voices of the Nakba, 2021
Journal of Palestine Studies, 2021
Radical History Review, 2020
This article examines the strategies, structures, and practices that allowed for the emergence of... more This article examines the strategies, structures, and practices that allowed for the emergence of communities without police institutions during two Palestinian uprisings, the 1936–39 revolt and the 1987–91 intifada. For each period, the article identifies efforts to disengage from and disempower the state police, to establish alternative systems of anticolonial justice, and to employ disciplinary violence to serve the imperatives and enforce the decisions of Palestinian nationalist bodies. In particular, Palestinian systems of anticolonial justice drew on communal reconciliation (sulh) and other preexisting local iterations of communal justice. These local forms relied on discourses of egalitarianism and consensus, which produced stability in periods of upheaval but also obscured the inequalities they reproduced. Ultimately, the anticolonial structures that Palestinians established proved unable to withstand intense internal and external pressure, and some elements of the coercive forces that served them were absorbed into state police institutions.
[For full article, go to: read.dukeupress.edu/radical-history-review/issue/2020/137]
AlMuntaqa, 2019
This paper argues that diaries are in themselves a kind of historical writing—individual in scale... more This paper argues that diaries are in themselves a kind of historical writing—individual in scale and scope, but wide-ranging in content and style. Reading diaries as histories rather than as historical documents, offers new perspectives from which to understand Palestinians’ experiences of the Nakba. In particular, this paper draws on the Nakba-era diaries of Khalil al-Sakakini and Muhammad ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Shrouf, to suggest potential contributions of reading diaries as history rather than texts from which fragments can be mobilized to augment, confirm, or illuminate narrative histories. Khalil al-Sakakini was one of the giants of Palestinian intellectual and political life in the twentieth century, and his diaries encompass nearly half a century, extending from 1907 to 1953. Meanwhile, Muhammad ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Shrouf (1913–1994) was of a different generation and a different milieu than Sakakini. Though far less prominent, and less prolific, than Sakakini, Shrouf’s diaries nevertheless provide an extensive record of the life of a Palestinian villager and subaltern during a crucial period of social, political, and economic transformation. Overall, the assessment of these two works will place Sakakini’s and Shrouf’s diaries within the context of Palestinian and Arab diaries, discussing their generic distinction from other kinds of personal accounts and even other published diaries, before discussing what in particular may be gained by reading these diaries as Nakba histories.
Journal of Palestine Studies , 2018
Seventy years after the Nakba, what does it mean to commemorate 1948? This introduction to three ... more Seventy years after the Nakba, what does it mean to commemorate 1948? This introduction to three articles drawn from the 2018 New Directions in Palestinian Studies workshop at Brown University, “The Shadow Years: Material Histories of Everyday Life,” examines the emergence of 1948 as the primary focus of Palestinian commemorative practices and guiding star of future political possibilities, as well as the promise and limitations of the settler-colonial framework. It argues that widening our lens to include the material histories of everyday life in the context of a generational struggle for survival contextualizes moments of great trauma and violence within the larger dynamics of Palestinian society, and recasts the time/space architecture of narratives about Palestine and the Palestinians.
Jerusalem Quarterly, 2018
Introduction to a special issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly with a focus on policing, incarceratio... more Introduction to a special issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly with a focus on policing, incarceration, and securitization in and around Jerusalem.
This chapter discusses the rise to prominence of Ahmad Hamad al-Mahmud Abu Jilda, a bandit from T... more This chapter discusses the rise to prominence of Ahmad Hamad al-Mahmud Abu Jilda, a bandit from Tammun, Palestine, in the early 1930s. It explores the popularity of Abu Jilda as a figure of resistance to British Mandate rule and sees in his actions and the discourse around him a foreshadowing the widespread 1936-1939 Revolt. In so doing, it addresses questions of popular versus elite nationalism in Mandate Palestine.
Jerusalem Quarterly, 2015
Najati Sidqi (1905–1979) was a leading figure in Arab and Palestinian communism. A leader of the ... more Najati Sidqi (1905–1979) was a leading figure in Arab and Palestinian communism. A leader of the trade union movement in Palestine during the 1920s and 1930s, he represented the Palestine Communist Party in the Comintern and was one of the very few Arab socialists – despite his claims below – to join the antifascist struggle in Spain. He contributed significantly to the political and cultural journalism of the Left in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Sidqi’s description of his experiences in Spain was published in the Beirut-based journal al-Tali‘a (The Vanguard) in June 1938, under the title “Five Months in Republican Spain: The Memoirs of an Arab Fighter in the International Brigades.” It seems that this was to be the first of several pieces written by Sidqi for the journal, but no further installments
exist. However, a full account can be found in Sidqi’s memoirs (Mudhakkirat Najati Sidqi), published in Arabic by the Institute for Palestine Studies in 2001. Sidqi’s 1938 article, translated and annotated here by Alex Winder, remains valuable as a record of the time, uninfluenced by the knowledge of the outcome of the Spanish Civil War or by Sidqi’s experiences in the Communist party afterward. Based on the situation as it stood in August 1936, two months after the formation of the United Socialist party, Sidqi’s assessment is rather idealistic and reflects the optimism that prevailed in the early days of the war among the ranks of the International Brigades. No mention is made of the deadly factionalism of the Leftist forces, which contributed to the eventual defeat of the Republicans. The only critique he makes of the opposition is a well-mannered attack on the anarchist forces and their “divisive role” in the trade union movement; as he puts it, “they are barking up the wrong tree . . . and the future is a guarantee to solve their problems.”
Biography, 2014
This article uses diary entries recorded by a Palestinian villager from outside Hebron to explore... more This article uses diary entries recorded by a Palestinian villager from outside Hebron to explore individual Palestinian subjectivities and experiences in the immediate aftermath of the 1948 war; tropes of village life and displacement in Palestinian national narratives; and the difficulties and possibilities presented by diaries in approaching Palestinian history and life writing.
Jerusalem Quarterly, Sep 2013
Journal of Palestine Studies, Nov 2012
This article analyzes the outbreak of the deadly 1929 riots in Palestine. Focusing on Jerusalem, ... more This article analyzes the outbreak of the deadly 1929 riots in Palestine. Focusing on Jerusalem, Safad, and Hebron, the cities most significantly affected by the events, the article sees the violence as attempts to reinforce, redefine, or reestablish communal boundaries. It argues that patterns of violence in each city can help us under- stand how these boundaries had been established and evolved in the past, as well as the ways in which new forces, in particular the economic, political, and social influence of the Zionist movement and the rise of nationalist politics among the Palestinian Arabs, had eroded older boundaries.
The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 2021
northwest and the earlier production of coffee in the Guajira and Sierra Nevada were cut from the... more northwest and the earlier production of coffee in the Guajira and Sierra Nevada were cut from the same cloth. Marijuana Boom also paints a diverse image of the actors and interests at play in the region, in Bogotá, and in the United States. Whereas the marijuana industry flourished because of US and upper-class Colombian buyers, Britto contends that the production and commercialization of marijuana was a product of the rural popular classes. Marimberos were important figures because of their practical knowledge of and familiarity with the cultural values of the Guajira and Sierra Nevada, which allowed them to navigate between indigenous labor sources and US buyers. In a historiography dominated largely by US perspectives, Marijuana Boom provides much needed context on the political, social, and cultural consequences of the drug trade in Colombia. Britto's study also complicates the "narcoticization" of US-Colombian relations, centered largely on the cocaine industry, by bringing to light the 1970s marijuana boom and its consequences. Her work is a must-read for students and scholars of drug control history, commodity studies, and those using the history of drugs to explore new topics in the broader histories of producer nations.
Archiv Orientální: Journal of African and Asian Studies, 2018
Archiv Orientální: Journal of African and Asian Studies, 2018
This is a review of the 2016 book "From Ambivalence to Hostility: The Arabic Newspaper Filastin a... more This is a review of the 2016 book "From Ambivalence to Hostility: The Arabic Newspaper Filastin and Zionism, 1911–1914," by Emanuel Beška (published by Slovak Academic Press), which addresses coverage of Zionism in the Jaffa-based Arabic newspaper Filastin in the late Ottoman period.
Jerusalem Quarterly, 2018
Review of Yael Berda, Living Emergency: Israel’s Permit Regime in the West Bank (Stanford Univers... more Review of Yael Berda, Living Emergency: Israel’s Permit Regime in the West Bank (Stanford University Press, 2018)
This is a review of the exhibition "Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People under Heaven" at the Metrop... more This is a review of the exhibition "Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People under Heaven" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from September 2016 to January 2017, and its accompanying catalog, edited by Barbara Drake Boehm and Melanie Holcomb.
Review essay of: Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917–... more Review essay of: Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917–1948, by Noah Haiduc-Dale; The Storyteller of Jerusalem: The Life and Times of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, 1904–1948, by Wasif Jawhariyyeh, edited and introduced by Salim Tamari and Issam Nassar, translated by Nada Elzeer; Memoirs of an Early Arab Feminist: The Life and Activism of Anbara Salam Khalidi, by Anbara Salam Khalidi, translated by Tarif Khalidi; and “This Is Jerusalem Calling”: State Radio in Mandate Palestine, by Andrea L. Stanton
Jerusalem Quarterly, Nov 2013
Journal of Palestine Studies, 2008
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
تنتمي "يوميات الشروف" إلى سلسلة من السير الشخصية تصدرها مؤسسة الدراسات الفلسطينية عن تاريخ فلسطين... more تنتمي "يوميات الشروف" إلى سلسلة من السير الشخصية تصدرها مؤسسة الدراسات الفلسطينية عن تاريخ فلسطين الاجتماعي، وأصبحت تعرف بـ "دراسات التابع" (subaltern studies)، أي الرؤية البديلة من كتابات النخبة. وكان الهدف من هذه السير استشراف الحياة الاجتماعية لكتاب من أوساط شعبية، انتمى أصحابها إلى خلفيات متباينة من المهن والمدارك، وقد شملت سابقاً مذكرات كل من: خليل السكاكيني (مربّ)؛ واصف جوهرية (موسيقي)؛ نجاتي صدقي (كاتب ومناضل)؛ إحسان الترجمان (جندي عثماني).
تعالج مدونات محمد عبد الهادي الشروف حياته في أربع مراحل: عمله ضابط شرطة في منشية يافا والبلدة القديمة وقرية يازور خلال العقد الأخير من الانتداب البريطاني؛ حرب 1948 مع بداية الاشتباكات في يافا وجبل الخليل بين المليشيات الصهيونية والمقاومة العربية بعد قرار التقسيم؛ عودته إلى بلدته نوبا، حيث انغمس في إعادة بناء ما تبقى من أرضه بعد أن استولت إسرائيل على الأغلبية العظمى من أراضي ما أصبح يسمى القرى الأمامية (خاراس، نوبا، بيت أولا) في منطقة الخليل؛ وأخيراً، انتقاله بعد النكبة إلى العمل المضني في مناجم الفوسفات في الأردن على غرار عشرات الآلاف من أهالي فلسطين.