The Revolution hypothesis : Its formulation and presuppositions -- Revolution as Alternative : The Hebrew conquest of Palestine / G.E. Mendenhall -- Liberated Israel / N.K. Gottwald -- The Reception -- Immigration or Conquest : Immigration of Israelite semi-nomads into Palestine / A. Alt and M. Noah -- The Israelite conquest of Palestine / W.F. Albright -- Excurus: The Study of Israelite history from J. Wellhausen to A. Alt -- Israel in the Period of the Judges : Social structure in the period of the Judges / C.H.J. de Geus. The Presuppositions of the Revolution Hypothesis : Normads : N.K. Gottwald's description of pastoral nomadism -- A Test of Gottwald's description of pastoral nomadism -- The Popular understanding of nomadism and its influence of the scholarly discussion -- Nomadic ways of life: examples of normadic societies : Al-Murrah -- Basseri -- Bahtiyari -- Yoruk -- The Bedouin of the Negev -- Nomadic ways of life II : Pastoral nomads -- From nomadic to sedentary life -- Excursus: The Desert as the place of origin of the semites -- Nomads in the second millenium BCE.