History of the Jews

Front Cover
Harper Collins, Mar 17, 2009 - Religion - 656 pages

National Bestseller

"A tour de force. . . . A remarkable achievement." —New York Times Book Review

"A marvelous book. . . . This is history: richly textured, provocative and wise." —Plain Dealer

From acclaimed historian Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times and A History of American People, this brilliant 4000 year survey covers not only Jewish history but the impact of Jewish genius and imagination on the world.

 

Contents

Abraham and his historical rebirth 16 Monotheism in embryo
17
democratic theocracy 40 The conqueror Joshua and
45
Samuel and state prophecy 51 Saul and the great constitutional
66
Jeremiah the first Jew
79
Suffering Servant or Rebellious Elder?
125
Paul and the theft ofJewish universalism 130 AntiSemitism
143
Jabneh and rabbinical Judaism 149 Tannaim amoraim Mishnah
160
Benjamin of Tudelas world 169 Jews and the creation of the Dark
208
Krochmal Graetz and the writing of Jewish history 329 Geiger
346
The post1881 exodus from Russia and its effects
365
Mordecai Noah Reform and GermanJewish America 367 Emma
391
and Weizmann 399 The religious opposition to Zionism 402
405
The Jews and modernist culture 408 Mahler Schonberg
420
Gurion and socialist Zionism 441 Interwar British policy
443
Luxemburg Trotsky and NonJewish Jews 448 The case of Isaac
459
Lippmann and Jewish invisibility 468 Jews in postwar Germany
474

the disputations
221
Ibn Verga and the Jewish hatelegacy 233 The first ghetto in Venice
235
Making the Thirty Years War pay 253 The rise and fall of
250
court Jew 255 The 1648 catastrophe and its effects 258 Lurianic
267
Jewish return to England 275 Jews in New York 278 American
281
the Baal Shem Tov and the hasidim 294
310
The Damascus case 322 Disraeli and Jewish Christianity 323 Zunz
328
Jews media violence and Weimar culture 475 The case of Walter
499
The role of the British and Americans 503 Jewish acquiescence and resistance 506 The survival of antiSemitism 512 Punishingthe criminals 513 Com...
514
The War of Israels Independence 527 Deir Yassin and
536
Defining a Jew 538 The ingathering 539 Hebrew as a modern
551
Stalinist antiSemitism 569 South Africa and the origins of Zionist
581
INDEX
631
Copyright

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About the author (2009)

Paul Johnson is a historian whose work ranges over the millennia and the whole gamut of human activities. He regularly writes book reviews for several UK magazines and newspapers, such as the Literary Review and The Spectator, and he lectures around the world. He lives in London, England.

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