Palestine, 1850: a backwater of the Ottoman Empire, but soon to become the focus of intense jealousies. Locally Arabs and Jews became increasingly polarised, internationally the vacuum left by the demise of the Ottoman Empire was filled with the rivalries of Western nations. This book is a vivid account, told through oral history and a wealth of photographs from the time, never previously published. They add new dimensions to our understanding of the history, the geography, and the human reality of Palestine.