From Library Journal
The vitality and longevity of Jewish culture raises the question: How did this tenacious people survive throughout history when many other cultures and religions were annihilated or absorbed? Uniquely, they accomplished this without a homeland for nearly 2000 years. The work, a revision of a huge history written shortly after World War II, doesn't dwell on the Holocaust but presents a history of ancient and modern Jewish states and spells out how Torah and Talmud kept alive a tradition of abstract thought: a potent survival tool. The work also details differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews and the split that created Christianity. The rift among the Semites, i.e., with Islam and the Arabs, gets less attention. Anna Fields narrates this classic, which, to Jews and non-Jews alike, successfully captures the history of the Jewish experience. A useful addition to most collections.AJames Dudley, Copiague, NY.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Referencing the Old Testament and Palestine's influence on world civilization, Finnish-American Dimont's secular history of the Jewish people was a surprise bestseller when originally published, and it has remained in print for more than twenty years. Deservedly so, for, despite quibbles from historians and religious partisans, the author has turned four thousand years in the life of one people into a lively, canny, authoritative, brainy and informative page-turner. To appreciate this audio, one must accept the kind of trade-offs encountered when a work that exists in space is translated into a work that exists in time. These include the inability to refer to indices, improbabilities of translating charts and graphs to sound, troubles going back and forth with footnotes, the need for heavy concentration to absorb the sheer density of data. On the plus side, one enjoys the accurate pronunciation of foreign words and phrases, as well as the narrator's animation of concepts and events. Anna Fields does a nice job here. Her listener-friendly cadences express not only the sense of the lines, but also the connections among ideas and the author's underlying intelligence. Be that as it may, to get the most out of the recording, one must still follow along with the text. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Book Description
From ancient Palestine through Europe and Asia, to America and modern Israel, Max I. Dimont shows how the saga of the Jews is interwoven with the story of virtually every nation on earth.

ANNOTATION

A comprehensive history of the Jews and their contribution to civilization, past and present.

FROM THE PUBLISHER