Ahad Ha'am (the pen name of Asher Ginsberg) is mainly remembered as the 'father of cultural Zionism'. But there was much more to the man and his thought. These essays show him to have been a brilliant exponent of the art of the essayist. Moreover, as the introduction by Brian Klug explains, his ideas have a direct relevance today in confronting the future of Israel and Palestine and for thinking about cultural pluralism in aliberal democratic society. Ahad Ha'am has largely been consigned to history. These essays are selected with a view to making him available to us in the present, both as a major literary figure and as an original thinker.