The back story in journalism and scholarship uncovers vital information on important issues that had been obscured or omitted. For example, the origin of Zionism is usually traced to a pamphlet Theodor Herzl wrote in 1896 called The Jewish State. However, the eminent Israeli scholar Ilan Pappe writes "Many people do not know that Zionism began as an evangelical Christian project long before any Jew was thinking about Zionism. Christian Zionists were advocating the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine knowing very well that there were other people living there” but thought that the creation of a Jewish state would not only advance British imperial interests but also “precipitate the second coming of the Messiah.” Recorded at the University of Massachusetts.