A History of the Jews - by Paul Johnson (Paperback)

About the Book

The author delivers a brilliant and comprehensive one-volume survey covering 4,000 years of Jewish history. His book is a forceful and sustained analysis of Jewish emergence and an interpretation of how Jewish history, philosophy, ethics, and social and political notions interplay with world history.

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

A national bestseller, this brilliant 4000 year survey covers not only Jewish history but he impact of Jewish genius and imagination on the world. By the author of Modern Times: The World From the Twenties to the Eighties.

Review Quotes

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

"An absorbing, provocative, well-written, often moving book, an insightful and impassioned blend of history and myth, story and interpretation." -- Merle Rubin, Christian Science Monitor

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

"Johnson has put together in one volume an extraordinary amount of useful information, and talks realistically about the Jews of the last four centuries, to which his devotes more than half of his book." -- New York Review of Books

"A powerful reminder of Jewish achievement throughout the ages." -- Martin Gilbert, Commentary

"Johnson brings to his subject a vitality that can't be matched in any of the professional one-volume histories. . . . His writing is dramatic without histrionics, graphic without being highly colored." -- John Gross, New York Times