A History of the Jews

By Paul Johnson

Categories: History, Religion & Spirituality

A History of the Jews (1987) is British historian Paul Johnson's single-volume history of the Jewish people across four thousand years, from Abraham and the biblical era to the founding of the modern State of Israel. Johnson follows Jewish communities through the Second Temple period, the diaspora in the Islamic world and Europe, the Enlightenment, the rise of Zionism and the Holocaust. A non-Jewish writer, he emphasises the Jews' contributions to ideas about law, ethics and history, and their persistence through persecution.

Recommended by 1 person

• Jonathan Sacks, Baron Sacks: “It is hard to single one out – there are many, most of them excellent. For me, however, Johnson's is one of the best written and the most insightful.”