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How a group of nonprofessional historians forced a reassessment of Abraham Lincolns life story

Cutting through assumptions about Britain's support for a "national home for the Jewish people" in the creation of British Palestine, Carly Beckerman explores why and how elite political battles in London inadvertently laid the foundations for the establishment of the State of Israel. Drawing on foreign policy analysis and previously unused archival sources, Unexpected State considers the strategic interests, the high-stakes international diplomacy, and the tangle of political maneuvering in Westminster that determined the future of Palestine. Contrary to established literature, Beckerman argues that British policy toward the territory was dominated by seemingly unrelated domestic and international political battles that left little room for considerations of Zionist or Palestinian interests and arguments. Beckerman instead shows how the policy process was aimed at resolving issues such as coalition feuds, party leadership battles, spending cuts, and riots in India. Considering detailed analysis of four major policy-making episodes between 1920 and 1948, Unexpected State interrogates key Israeli and Palestinian narratives and provides fresh insight into the motives and decisions behind policies that would have global implications for decades to come.

The Rocket Lab: Maurice Zucrow, Purdue University, and America’s Race to Space focuses on the golden era of space exploration between 1946 and 1966, specifically the life and times of Purdue University’s Dr. Maurice J. Zucrow, a pioneering teacher and researcher in aerospace engineering. Zucrow taught America’s first university course in jet and rocket propulsion, wrote the field’s first textbook, and established the country’s first educational Rocket Lab. He was part of a small circle of innovators who transformed Purdue into the country’s largest engineering university, which became a cradle of astronauts. Taking a chronological and thematic approach, The Rocket Lab weaves between the local and national, drawing in rival universities, especially Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and Caltech. Also covered is Zucrow’s role in the national project system of research and development through World War II and the Cold War. At Aerojet, he was one of the country’s original project engineers, dedicated to scientific-technical expertise and the stepwise approach. He made vanguard power plant contributions to the Northrop Flying Wing, as well as the Corporal, Nike, and Atlas missiles, among others. Zucrow’s work in propulsion helped to improve the country’s arsenal of ballistic missiles and space launchers, and as a teacher, he educated the first generation of aerospace engineers. This book elevates Zucrow and the central role he played in getting the United States to space.