Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh is a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute's Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies and the Mediterranean Programme.

"This well-written and theoretically informed book remains faithful to the reality of the politics of reproduction in Galilee-indeed to the reality of Galilee society. Throughout, the narrative rings true. Kanaaneh argues compellingly and convincingly that understanding reproductive behavior clarifies how Palestinians within Israel negotiate the tortured path of self-definition and definition."-Rashid Khalidi, author of Palestinian Identity: The Construction of a Modern National Consciousness; "Birthing the Nation provides the first serious and comprehensive treatment of an issue full of intense meaning. Kanaaneh sets her unique study against a backdrop of Israeli political arithmetic, Palestinian subordination, nationalism, gender culture, globalization and modernity. Women's bodies and reproductive potential are the sites on which this demographic contest is played out. Therefore, this book has relevance and resonance far beyond the ethnographic site."-Julie Peteet, author of Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement

• List of illustrations Foreword by Hanan Ashrawi Acknowledgments Introduction. Placing Chapter 1. Babies and Boundaries Chapter 2. Luxurious Necessities Chapter 3. Fertile Differences Chapter 4. Modernizing the Body Chapter 5. Son Preference Conclusion Bibliography Index