Reviews
Award-winning Columbia University historian Schama . . . brings to bear his gift for synthesizing mountains of information into a well-crafted, accessible narrative in this impressive volume that spans nearly 2,500 years and serves as a companion volume to a PBS series., An energetic cascade of prose and erudition, rife with pointillist detail and witty colloquialisms..., Schama is a historian of prodigious and varied gifts. He can take a specific subject and drill deep; he can take a wide-angled view of many countries over long periods of time. He does both in this excellent first volume… Revealing and moving., The story that Schama tells is wide-ranging, well documented, delightful, amusing, personal, and inspring…, In his brilliant new history of the Jews, the unconventional scholar somehow manages to be simultaneously sentimental and subversive, consensual and contrarian - and we readers are the beneficiaries., Schama writes history from below, and from the middle and other unexpected angles, resurrecting the unrecorded and long-forgotten, and analyzing the social and cultural forces that shaped his subjects' lives... [he] has pulled it off with opinionated flair and literary grace., The story that Schama tells is wide-ranging, well documented, delightful, amusing, personal, and inspring..., An energetic cascade of prose and erudition, rife with pointillist detail and witty colloquialisms…, Schama writes history from below, and from the middle and other unexpected angles, resurrecting the unrecorded and long-forgotten, and analyzing the social and cultural forces that shaped his subjects' lives… [he] has pulled it off with opinionated flair and literary grace., Schama is a historian of prodigious and varied gifts. He can take a specific subject and drill deep; he can take a wide-angled view of many countries over long periods of time. He does both in this excellent first volume... Revealing and moving., Mr. Schama's The Story of the Jews is exemplary popular history. It's engaged, literate, alert to recent scholarship and, at moments, winningly personal., "Award-winning Columbia University historian Schama . . . brings to bear his gift for synthesizing mountains of information into a well-crafted, accessible narrative in this impressive volume that spans nearly 2,500 years and serves as a companion volume to a PBS series." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A multifaceted story artfully woven by an expert historian." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Schama has written an unconventional but masterful and deeply felt history of his people..." -- Booklist (starred review) "Mr. Schama's The Story of the Jews is exemplary popular history. It's engaged, literate, alert to recent scholarship and, at moments, winningly personal." -- New York Times "In his brilliant new history of the Jews, the unconventional scholar somehow manages to be simultaneously sentimental and subversive, consensual and contrarian - and we readers are the beneficiaries." -- Haaretz (English edition) "Mr. Schama's history flashes by with entertaining velocity..." -- Wall Street Journal "An energetic cascade of prose and erudition, rife with pointillist detail and witty colloquialisms..." -- Chicago Tribune, Printers Row "Schama writes history from below, and from the middle and other unexpected angles, resurrecting the unrecorded and long-forgotten, and analyzing the social and cultural forces that shaped his subjects' lives... [he] has pulled it off with opinionated flair and literary grace." -- New York Times Book Review "Stirring and fascinating" -- Los Angeles Times "Schama is a historian of prodigious and varied gifts. He can take a specific subject and drill deep; he can take a wide-angled view of many countries over long periods of time. He does both in this excellent first volume... Revealing and moving." -- San Francisco Chronicle "Reading Schama is like sitting across from the world's most dazzling dinner party guest..." -- Seattle Times "The story that Schama tells is wide-ranging, well documented, delightful, amusing, personal, and inspring..." -- New York Review of Books
