Jerusalem - by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Paperback)

About the Book

From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism, and coexistence.

Book Synopsis

FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED FOR 2024

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK - JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Spectacular. [Montefiore] really tells you what the life of the city has been like and why it means so much. You fall in love with the city. It's a treasure. It's a wonderful book." --Bill Clinton

"Impossible to put down. . . . Vastly enjoyable." --The New York Times Book Review

The history of Jerusalem is the story of the world: Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths. The Holy City and Holy Land are the battlefields for today's multifaceted conflicts and, for believers, the setting for Judgment Day and the Apocalypse. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the "center of the world" and now the key to peace in the Middle East? Why is the Holy Land so important not just to the region and its many new players, but to the wider world too? Drawing on new archives and a lifetime's study, Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city and turbulent region through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the kings, empresses, amirs, sultans, caliphs, presidents, autocrats, imperialists and warlords, poets, prophets, saints and rabbis who created, destroyed, chronicled, and believed in Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

A classic of modern literature, this is not only the epic story of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism, co-existence, power and myth, but also a freshly updated, carefully balanced history of the Middle East, from King David to the new powers of the twenty-first century, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict. This is how today's Middle East was forged, how the Holy Land became sacred and how Jerusalem became Jerusalem--the only city that exists twice--in heaven and on earth.

"Magnificent. . . . Montefiore barely misses a trick or a character intaking us through the city's story with compelling, breathless tension." --The Wall Street Journal

Review Quotes

A New York Times Notable Book
Jewish Book Council Book of the Year

"Spectacular. [Montefiore] really tells you what the life of the city has been like and why it means so much. You fall in love with the city. It's a treasure. It's a wonderful book."
--Bill Clinton, #1 Holiday Book Pick on the Today show

"Magnificent. . . Montefiore barely misses a trick or a character in taking us through the city's story with compelling, breathless tension."
--Wall Street Journal

"Impossible to put down. . . . Vastly enjoyable."
--New York Times Book Review

"A powerful achievement. . . . At once a scholarly record and an exuberantly written popular tour de force."
--New York Review of Books

"Magisterial. . . . As a writer, Montefiore has an elegant turn of phrase and an unerring ear for the anecdote that will cut to the heart of a story. . . . A joy to read."
--The Economist

"Already a classic. Jerusalem is an extraordinary achievement, written with imagination and energy. . . . Simon Sebag Montefiore tells this modern story with clarity and admirable impartiality. . . . Read this book."
--Financial Times

"Montefiore's towering biography of the city relates in fascinating, horrific and sometimes comical detail the wars to annexe its symbolic sanctity and the daily lives of its inhabitants. This monument of scholarly research is also a compelling story: of human foibles, lust, bravery and chicanery."
--The Times of London

"Densely textured. . . . Montefiore embraces Jerusalem's paradoxes in his chronological account, which seeks to avoid hindsight and disclaims a political agenda. He succeeds admirably in remaining evenhanded, a particularly notable achievement."
--Los Angeles Times

"A memorable and distinguished history of a city where 'the truth is much less important than the myth'. . . . Splendidly evoked."
--Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Magnificent. . . . A spectacular book for general readers. . . . This is a book about the ages, for the ages."
--Wichita Eagle

"Sweeping and absorbing. . . . Montefiore is a master of colorful and telling details and anecdotes. . . . His account is admirably dispassionate and balanced."
--Washington Post Book World

"In his stunningly comprehensive history, Simon Sebag Montefiore covers 3,000-plus years of the Earth's most fiercely contested piece of geography. . . . Not only has Montefiore delivered a piece of superb scholarship, he has done so in an extremely easy-to-read style. The author tells the history of the complex relationships that existed between long-dead peoples in a manner that makes them seem human and understandable. . . . Meticulously researched."
--The Newark Star-Ledger

"Few historians have demonstrated the vision, mastery, and boldness necessary to publish on a subject so vast and in such detail as Montefiore. . . . A marvelous panorama."
--Library Journal

"This is an essential book for those who wish to understand a city that remains a nexus of world affairs. . . . Although his Jewish family has strong links to the city, Montefiore scrupulously sustains balance and objectivity. . . . Beautifully written, absorbing."
--Booklist (starred)

"A panoramic narrative of Jerusalem, organized chronologically and delivered with magisterial flair. Spanning eras from King David to modern Israel with rich anecdotes and vivid detail, this exceptional volume portrays the personalities and worldviews of the dynasties and families that shaped the city throughout its 3,000-year history."
--Publishers Weekly (starred)

"An essential text, bathed in blood, lit with faint hope. . . . The author sees Jerusalem not just as the setting for some of history's most savage violence but a microcosm of our world. . . . The story is horribly complex, and Montefiore struggles mightily to make everything clear as well as compelling."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Four thousand years of history absolutely romped through--a masterwork."
--The Evening Standard (UK)

"Immensely readable. . . . Montefiore is that rarest of things: a historian who writes great, weighty tomes that read like the best thrillers. . . . [He] has a visceral understanding of what makes history worth reading. [Montefiore] manages to bring people who have been dead for two millennia alive again and make them breathe, and he has insight into the mind of psychopathic tyrants that makes you wish he were working for the U.S. secretary of state."
--Newsweek

About the Author

SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE is a historian of Russia and the Middle East. Catherine the Great and Potemkin was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards. Young Stalin won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, the Costa Biography Award, and le Grande Prix de la biographie politique. Jerusalem: The Biography was a worldwide best seller. Montefiore's books are published in more than forty languages. He is the author of the novels Sashenka and One Night in Winter, which won the Paddy Power Political Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2014. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Montefiore graduated from Cambridge University, where he received his PhD. He lives in London.