David Aberbach is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Studies at McGill University and Honorary Research Associate at the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University. He took his D.Phil. at Oxford University and has held visiting fellowships at the Kennedy Centre for International Development, Harvard University, and the Department of International Development, London School of Economics. In addition to his books on leading modern Hebrew writers, including Bialik, Agnon, and Mendele Mocher Sefarim, David specialises in literature and social sciences and teaches courses in these areas at McGill. His other books include: 'Surviving Trauma: loss, literature and psychoanalysis'; 'Charisma in Politics', 'Religion and the Media'; 'National Poetry', 'Empires and War'; and, most recently, 'Literature and Poverty: from the Hebrew Bible to modern times'.