Thomas Hodgkin, letters from Palestine, 1932-36

Thomas Lionel Hodgkin, a noted British historian and intellectual, wrote these letters during his time working in Palestine in the 1930s. At the time, Hodgkin was in his early twenties and serving as an assistant secretary in the British Mandatory government, providing him with a unique vantage point on the mounting socio-political tensions between Arab and Jewish communities under the British Mandate.

The collection was compiled and published by Quartet Books in 1986, long after the events described, as part of a historical retrospective on the region. Edited to preserve the immediacy of his observations, the book is considered a significant primary source for understanding the colonial administration's internal perspective and the early atmosphere of a period that would fundamentally shape the modern Middle East.