The Babylonian exile and the transition from a cult-based religion to a book-based one.
Johnson argues that the Jews survived because they were "the people of the book." When they lost their land, they carried their nationhood within their laws and literature.
Paul Johnson’s A History of the Jews is a comprehensive, one-volume narrative that covers nearly 4,000 years of Jewish history, from the biblical patriarchs to the modern era. 1. The Structure A History of the Jews
The catastrophic impact of the Shoah on world Jewry.
Foundations, the Exodus, and the establishment of the kingdom. The Babylonian exile and the transition from a
He emphasizes how Jewish ethics and monotheism provided the moral framework for Western civilization.
Life under Christian and Muslim rule in the Middle Ages. He emphasizes how Jewish ethics and monotheism provided
Unlike a dry textbook, it reads like a biography of a people. It is fast-paced but dense with names and dates. 4. Why Read It?