This book explores the psychological trauma affecting soldiers and civilians who have encountered the violence of war or terrorism, arguing that the enigmas surrounding war trauma are rooted in culture, collective memory and social norms. Focusing primarily on a large-scale sociological study in Israel, chapters detail the ideological, political, historical and economic factors that shape the multifaceted connection between individual and collective trauma, probing the exterior layers of I...

This book deals comprehensively with different aspects of collective victimhood in contemporary Israel, but also with the wider implications of this important concept for many other societies, including the Palestinian one. The eight highly-diverse, scholarly chapters included in this volume offer analysis of the politics of victimhood (viewing it as increasingly dominant within contemporary Israel), assess victimhood as a focal point of the Jewish historical legacy, trace the evolution an...