In the second volume of this magnificently illustrated cultural history, the tie-in to the PBS and BBC series The Story of the Jews, Simon Schama details the story of the Jewish people from 1492 through the end of nineteenth century.
Volume two of this epic incorporates the stories of many who seldom figure in Jewish histories: not just the rabbis and the philosophers but a poetess in the ghetto of Venice; a boxer in Georgian England; a Bible showman in Amsterdam; a teacher of the deaf in eighteenth-century Germany.
The story unfolds in Kerala and Mantua, the starlit hills of Galilee, the rivers of Colombia, the kitchens of Istanbul, the taverns of Ukraine and the mining camps of California. It sails in caravels, rides the stagecoaches and the railways; trudges the dawn streets of London, hobbles along with the remnant of Napoleon's ruined army.
Through Schama's passionate and intelligent telling, a story emerges of the Jewish people that feels as if it is the story of everyone, of humanity packed with detail.
