A passionate history of a world unfolding across many continents and five centuries by one of our greatest and internationally bestselling historians.
Simon Schama is University Professor of Art History and History at
Columbia University. His award-winning books, translated into
fifteen languages, include Citizens, Landscape and Memory,
Rembrandt's Eyes, A History of Britain, The Power of Art, Rough
Crossings, The American Future, The Face of Britain and The Story
of the Jews- Finding the Words (1000 BCE - 1492).
His art columns for the New Yorker won the National Magazine Award
for criticism and his journalism has appeared regularly in the
Guardian and the Financial Times where he is Contributing Editor.
He has written and presented more than fifty films for the BBC on
subjects as diverse as Tolstoy, American politics, and The Story of
the Jews and is co-presenter of a new landmark series on the
history of world art, Civilisations.
A magnificent achievement… [a] parade of bustlingly vital
characters from across the globe ... all painted in luminous
colour… By offering such a throbbing cavalcade of characters,
Schama is defying several key assumptions, even stereotypes, about
Jewish history and Jews themselves… Above all, while much Jewish
history can read like a sorrowful trudge through disaster, plague
and pogrom, Schama’s book teems with life rather than death
*Guardian*
Magisterial ... the product of a world-class historian at the peak
of his creative powers … rich, ornate, intensely evocative and
sensory. With astonishing range and extraordinary synthesising
powers, Schama captures the drama of Jewish history.
*Financial Times*
A rich melody that soars above the ground bass of prejudice and
persecution … Schama has made himself the leading virtuoso of our
time. This second volume of this trilogy is an affirmation of faith
in the grand narrative … Its familiar and familial tone proclaims
the author’s unapologetic mission to play his part in the story of
the Jews by bringing their history alive… [A] glittering gemstone
of a book
*The Times*
So beautifully written it regularly takes your breath away, it is a
book far greater than the sum of its parts. Daunted by its colossal
size, I started reading with some trepidation; I finished filled
with wonder and delight.
*Times Literary Supplement*
An extraordinary cultural journey, filled with astonishingly
colourful and outrageous characters … Schama delivers a superb and
thrilling ride, both inspirational and tragic.
*Mail on Sunday*
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