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The Jews: Story of a People
The “ epic and stirring story” of 4,000 years of Judaism—told by a #1 New York Times –bestselling author ( Jewish Quarterly ).
From their nomadic beginnings and the rise of Moses to the kings David and Solomon through the Diaspora and the unthinkable horror of the Holocaust—and culminating in the founding of the state of Israel—this is the sweeping tale of the Jews. Howard Fast, author of the classic Spartacus, displays his gift for compelling narrative throughout this eminently readable and well-researched saga.
In Fast’s telling, truth is stranger, and more inspiring, than fiction. “Here, I decided, was one of the most exciting and romantic adventures in all the history of mankind,” he explains in his introduction. “It had a continuity that spanned most of recorded history. It was filled with drama, passion, tragedy, and faith; and with all due reverence for the scholars, it pleaded for a storyteller to tell it as a story, indeed as the story of all stories.”
Fast’s accomplishment is required reading not only for lovers of great literature but also for anyone interested in the march of civilization. Barry Holtz, the editor of The Schocken Guide to Jewish Books hails The Jews as “an exciting and pleasurable [introduction] to a four-thousand-year epic.”
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author’s estate.
From their nomadic beginnings and the rise of Moses to the kings David and Solomon through the Diaspora and the unthinkable horror of the Holocaust—and culminating in the founding of the state of Israel—this is the sweeping tale of the Jews. Howard Fast, author of the classic Spartacus, displays his gift for compelling narrative throughout this eminently readable and well-researched saga.
In Fast’s telling, truth is stranger, and more inspiring, than fiction. “Here, I decided, was one of the most exciting and romantic adventures in all the history of mankind,” he explains in his introduction. “It had a continuity that spanned most of recorded history. It was filled with drama, passion, tragedy, and faith; and with all due reverence for the scholars, it pleaded for a storyteller to tell it as a story, indeed as the story of all stories.”
Fast’s accomplishment is required reading not only for lovers of great literature but also for anyone interested in the march of civilization. Barry Holtz, the editor of The Schocken Guide to Jewish Books hails The Jews as “an exciting and pleasurable [introduction] to a four-thousand-year epic.”
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author’s estate.
380 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1970
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802 people want to read
About the author
Howard Fast
303 books254 followersHoward Fast was one of the most prolific American writers of the twentieth century. He was a bestselling author of more than eighty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. The son of immigrants, Fast grew up in New York City and published his first novel upon finishing high school in 1933. In 1950, his refusal to provide the United States Congress with a list of possible Communist associates earned him a three-month prison sentence. During his incarceration, Fast wrote one of his best-known novels, Spartacus (1951). Throughout his long career, Fast matched his commitment to championing social justice in his writing with a deft, lively storytelling style.
Pseudonyms: Walter Ericson, E.V. Cunningham
Pseudonyms: Walter Ericson, E.V. Cunningham
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
January 7, 2023
Howard Fast was a most brilliant author. I have read his novels that revolve around the history of Ancient Israel: My Glorious Brothers; Moses, Prince of Egypt and Agrippa's Daughter.
In this work , published in 1968, he puts his pen to the service of documenting the history of the Jewish Nation.
The result is compelling and fascinating, in the incredible style of Howard Fast. The first three chapters deal with his theory as to the origin of the Hebrew people, and cannot be said to be really history. It is simply theory - which largely departs from the Biblical narrative- without any real proof or substance. Yet it is an interesting theory nonetheless. He deals comprehensively with Israel at the time of Herod and Hillel, and the life of Yehoshuah Ben Yosef (Jesus) and the birth of Christianity, under the ideas of Saul of Tarsus (Paul). Fast writes at length about how the Church planted the seeds of hatred that lead to the centuries of anti-Semitic terror and bloodshed against the Jewish people in Europe. He documents the Diaspora of the Jews when most of them where forced out of their homeland of Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel), by the Roman Empire, into the Mediterranean Lands the Balkans, Spain, Greece and Italy, and from there into Germany, France and England and then into Poland, Russia, the Baltic Lands, Belarus and the Ukraine.
The story of the Jews is a long and tragic tale of suffering and bloodshed of a people separated from their homeland for so many centuries and unable to determine their own future... Take this passage about the genocide visited upon the Jews in Mediaeval Germany by the Crusaders: " In Neuss, the Crusaders where drunk, and in the spirit of good fun they flung more than twenty women and a hundred children into the river, seeing how far two men could fling a screaming child. At Mors almost a thousand Jewish bodies where observed floating in the Rhine. At Alternah, the humane Archbishop Egbert attempted to defend the Jews and was beaten half to death. In Regensburg, the Jews where cut down in the streets. A Count Agthar likened it to rabbit hunting. A great pile of Jewish bodies was dragged into the main square, and crusaders amused themselves by beheading the dead. Over four thousand Jews where killed in the Rhine district alone."
But it also the story of their great contribution to all the lands in which they where dispersed, how they gave so much to the advancement of finance, commerce, medicine, navigation, astronomy, science, medicine and ideas.
And we also read in this volume the intriguing story of the Jews in other lands, like China and India, where thriving Jewish communities existed, as well as the large Jewish communities of the Middle East, which lived under the ebb and flow of alternating prosperity and persecution by their Muslim overlords.
There is a chapter of the Jews in America, and their remarkable contribution to that remarkable land.
Fast gives a fascinating account of the journey of Jewish history until the horrors of the most devastating blow of all, Hitler's holocaust.
There are troubling parallels between the systematic vilification of Jews before the Holocaust and the current vilification of the Jewish people and Israel. Suffice it to note the annual flood of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN; or the public opinion polls taken in Europe, which single out Israel as a danger to world peace; or the divestment campaigns being waged in the US against Israel; or the attempts to delegitimize Israel's very existence. The complicity of the Allies in WW II is mirrored by the support the PLO has been receiving from Europe, China and Russia to this very day.
If remembering Auschwitz should teach us anything, it is that we must all support Israel and the Jewish people against the vilification and the complicity we are witnessing, knowing where it inevitably leads.
As with the holocaust, the same kind of Jew-haters will again attempt to appease Arab rage with Jewish blood and land. We must stand up against it. Jews are still dying for only one reason; being a Jew.
Like a Phoenix out of the ashes of the Shoah (as the holocaust is known in Hebrew) the reborn Jewish State of Israel arose. The great hope of the Jewish Nation - the national anthem of Israel is Hatikvah - the Hope.
Fast points out that there was NEVER a time when there where not Jewish communities living in the Land of Israel, from the time of Moses until today: " In 1495 there where over two hundred Jewish families in Jerusalem, and there where functioning synagogues in half a hundred other spots in Palestine. In 1520, in Safed alone, there where two thousand Jewish families...By 1600, we must conclude that somewhere between 100 000 and 200 000 Jews where resident in Palestine."
The State of Israel embodies the hopes and lives on the Jewish Nation, with 5 million Jews today living in Israel. The destruction of Israel would mean another holocaust of Jews.
Hope writes in this book, what should ring out as an answer to Israel's loathsome critics: "The meaning of Israel is clear. The Jew has experienced too much death, and a portion of the Jewish people decided that they would die quietly no more. So it is: and no argument, no clever political talk, no logic and no parading of right and wrong can change this fact. The Jews returned to Israel because it was their ancient land. From 1810 onwards Jews in Palestine have been murdered by Arabs. The pious Jews of Safed , who would raise no hand in their defense , had been robbed and murdered and burned out again and again by Arabs-as the Jews in Jerusalem and Tiberias had been robbed and slain and burned out. Bedouin Arabs passed through Palestine at will-and robbed and killed Jews as a profitable thing. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries , Arab feudal lords in Palestine organized pogroms precisely as the Czar had organized pogroms. Palestine was a blighted and empty land until the Zionist Movement returned it to life..."
Merged review:
Howard Fast was a most brilliant author. I have read his novels that revolve around the history of Ancient Israel: My Glorious Brothers; Moses, Prince of Egypt and Agrippa's Daughter.
In this work , published in 1968, he puts his pen to the service of documenting the history of the Jewish Nation.
The result is compelling and fascinating, in the incredible style of Howard Fast. The first three chapters deal with his theory as to the origin of the Hebrew people, and cannot be said to be really history. It is simply theory - which largely departs from the Biblical narrative- without any real proof or substance. Yet it is an interesting theory nonetheless. He deals comprehensively with Israel at the time of Herod and Hillel, and the life of Yehoshuah Ben Yosef (Jesus) and the birth of Christianity, under the ideas of Saul of Tarsus (Paul). Fast writes at length about how the Church planted the seeds of hatred that lead to the centuries of anti-Semitic terror and bloodshed against the Jewish people in Europe. He documents the Diaspora of the Jews when most of them where forced out of their homeland of Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel), by the Roman Empire, into the Mediterranean Lands the Balkans, Spain, Greece and Italy, and from there into Germany, France and England and then into Poland, Russia, the Baltic Lands, Belarus and the Ukraine.
The story of the Jews is a long and tragic tale of suffering and bloodshed of a people separated from their homeland for so many centuries and unable to determine their own future... Take this passage about the genocide visited upon the Jews in Mediaeval Germany by the Crusaders: " In Neuss, the Crusaders where drunk, and in the spirit of good fun they flung more than twenty women and a hundred children into the river, seeing how far two men could fling a screaming child. At Mors almost a thousand Jewish bodies where observed floating in the Rhine. At Alternah, the humane Archbishop Egbert attempted to defend the Jews and was beaten half to death. In Regensburg, the Jews where cut down in the streets. A Count Agthar likened it to rabbit hunting. A great pile of Jewish bodies was dragged into the main square, and crusaders amused themselves by beheading the dead. Over four thousand Jews where killed in the Rhine district alone."
But it also the story of their great contribution to all the lands in which they where dispersed, how they gave so much to the advancement of finance, commerce, medicine, navigation, astronomy, science, medicine and ideas.
And we also read in this volume the intriguing story of the Jews in other lands, like China and India, where thriving Jewish communities existed, as well as the large Jewish communities of the Middle East, which lived under the ebb and flow of alternating prosperity and persecution by their Muslim overlords.
There is a chapter of the Jews in America, and their remarkable contribution to that remarkable land.
Fast gives a fascinating account of the journey of Jewish history until the horrors of the most devastating blow of all, Hitler's holocaust.
There are troubling parallels between the systematic vilification of Jews before the Holocaust and the current vilification of the Jewish people and Israel. Suffice it to note the annual flood of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN; or the public opinion polls taken in Europe, which single out Israel as a danger to world peace; or the divestment campaigns being waged in the US against Israel; or the attempts to delegitimize Israel's very existence. The complicity of the Allies in WW II is mirrored by the support the PLO has been receiving from Europe, China and Russia to this very day.
If remembering Auschwitz should teach us anything, it is that we must all support Israel and the Jewish people against the vilification and the complicity we are witnessing, knowing where it inevitably leads.
As with the holocaust, the same kind of Jew-haters will again attempt to appease Arab rage with Jewish blood and land. We must stand up against it. Jews are still dying for only one reason; being a Jew.
Like a Phoenix out of the ashes of the Shoah (as the holocaust is known in Hebrew) the reborn Jewish State of Israel arose. The great hope of the Jewish Nation - the national anthem of Israel is Hatikvah - the Hope.
Fast points out that there was NEVER a time when there where not Jewish communities living in the Land of Israel, from the time of Moses until today: " In 1495 there where over two hundred Jewish families in Jerusalem, and there where functioning synagogues in half a hundred other spots in Palestine. In 1520, in Safed alone, there where two thousand Jewish families...By 1600, we must conclude that somewhere between 100 000 and 200 000 Jews where resident in Palestine."
The State of Israel embodies the hopes and lives on the Jewish Nation, with 5 million Jews today living in Israel. The destruction of Israel would mean another holocaust of Jews.
Hope writes in this book, what should ring out as an answer to Israel's loathsome critics: "The meaning of Israel is clear. The Jew has experienced too much death, and a portion of the Jewish people decided that they would die quietly no more. So it is: and no argument, no clever political talk, no logic and no parading of right and wrong can change this fact. The Jews returned to Israel because it was their ancient land. From 1810 onwards Jews in Palestine have been murdered by Arabs. The pious Jews of Safed , who would raise no hand in their defense , had been robbed and murdered and burned out again and again by Arabs-as the Jews in Jerusalem and Tiberias had been robbed and slain and burned out. Bedouin Arabs passed through Palestine at will-and robbed and killed Jews as a profitable thing. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries , Arab feudal lords in Palestine organized pogroms precisely as the Czar had organized pogroms. Palestine was a blighted and empty land until the Zionist Movement returned it to life..."
In this work , published in 1968, he puts his pen to the service of documenting the history of the Jewish Nation.
The result is compelling and fascinating, in the incredible style of Howard Fast. The first three chapters deal with his theory as to the origin of the Hebrew people, and cannot be said to be really history. It is simply theory - which largely departs from the Biblical narrative- without any real proof or substance. Yet it is an interesting theory nonetheless. He deals comprehensively with Israel at the time of Herod and Hillel, and the life of Yehoshuah Ben Yosef (Jesus) and the birth of Christianity, under the ideas of Saul of Tarsus (Paul). Fast writes at length about how the Church planted the seeds of hatred that lead to the centuries of anti-Semitic terror and bloodshed against the Jewish people in Europe. He documents the Diaspora of the Jews when most of them where forced out of their homeland of Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel), by the Roman Empire, into the Mediterranean Lands the Balkans, Spain, Greece and Italy, and from there into Germany, France and England and then into Poland, Russia, the Baltic Lands, Belarus and the Ukraine.
The story of the Jews is a long and tragic tale of suffering and bloodshed of a people separated from their homeland for so many centuries and unable to determine their own future... Take this passage about the genocide visited upon the Jews in Mediaeval Germany by the Crusaders: " In Neuss, the Crusaders where drunk, and in the spirit of good fun they flung more than twenty women and a hundred children into the river, seeing how far two men could fling a screaming child. At Mors almost a thousand Jewish bodies where observed floating in the Rhine. At Alternah, the humane Archbishop Egbert attempted to defend the Jews and was beaten half to death. In Regensburg, the Jews where cut down in the streets. A Count Agthar likened it to rabbit hunting. A great pile of Jewish bodies was dragged into the main square, and crusaders amused themselves by beheading the dead. Over four thousand Jews where killed in the Rhine district alone."
But it also the story of their great contribution to all the lands in which they where dispersed, how they gave so much to the advancement of finance, commerce, medicine, navigation, astronomy, science, medicine and ideas.
And we also read in this volume the intriguing story of the Jews in other lands, like China and India, where thriving Jewish communities existed, as well as the large Jewish communities of the Middle East, which lived under the ebb and flow of alternating prosperity and persecution by their Muslim overlords.
There is a chapter of the Jews in America, and their remarkable contribution to that remarkable land.
Fast gives a fascinating account of the journey of Jewish history until the horrors of the most devastating blow of all, Hitler's holocaust.
There are troubling parallels between the systematic vilification of Jews before the Holocaust and the current vilification of the Jewish people and Israel. Suffice it to note the annual flood of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN; or the public opinion polls taken in Europe, which single out Israel as a danger to world peace; or the divestment campaigns being waged in the US against Israel; or the attempts to delegitimize Israel's very existence. The complicity of the Allies in WW II is mirrored by the support the PLO has been receiving from Europe, China and Russia to this very day.
If remembering Auschwitz should teach us anything, it is that we must all support Israel and the Jewish people against the vilification and the complicity we are witnessing, knowing where it inevitably leads.
As with the holocaust, the same kind of Jew-haters will again attempt to appease Arab rage with Jewish blood and land. We must stand up against it. Jews are still dying for only one reason; being a Jew.
Like a Phoenix out of the ashes of the Shoah (as the holocaust is known in Hebrew) the reborn Jewish State of Israel arose. The great hope of the Jewish Nation - the national anthem of Israel is Hatikvah - the Hope.
Fast points out that there was NEVER a time when there where not Jewish communities living in the Land of Israel, from the time of Moses until today: " In 1495 there where over two hundred Jewish families in Jerusalem, and there where functioning synagogues in half a hundred other spots in Palestine. In 1520, in Safed alone, there where two thousand Jewish families...By 1600, we must conclude that somewhere between 100 000 and 200 000 Jews where resident in Palestine."
The State of Israel embodies the hopes and lives on the Jewish Nation, with 5 million Jews today living in Israel. The destruction of Israel would mean another holocaust of Jews.
Hope writes in this book, what should ring out as an answer to Israel's loathsome critics: "The meaning of Israel is clear. The Jew has experienced too much death, and a portion of the Jewish people decided that they would die quietly no more. So it is: and no argument, no clever political talk, no logic and no parading of right and wrong can change this fact. The Jews returned to Israel because it was their ancient land. From 1810 onwards Jews in Palestine have been murdered by Arabs. The pious Jews of Safed , who would raise no hand in their defense , had been robbed and murdered and burned out again and again by Arabs-as the Jews in Jerusalem and Tiberias had been robbed and slain and burned out. Bedouin Arabs passed through Palestine at will-and robbed and killed Jews as a profitable thing. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries , Arab feudal lords in Palestine organized pogroms precisely as the Czar had organized pogroms. Palestine was a blighted and empty land until the Zionist Movement returned it to life..."
Merged review:
Howard Fast was a most brilliant author. I have read his novels that revolve around the history of Ancient Israel: My Glorious Brothers; Moses, Prince of Egypt and Agrippa's Daughter.
In this work , published in 1968, he puts his pen to the service of documenting the history of the Jewish Nation.
The result is compelling and fascinating, in the incredible style of Howard Fast. The first three chapters deal with his theory as to the origin of the Hebrew people, and cannot be said to be really history. It is simply theory - which largely departs from the Biblical narrative- without any real proof or substance. Yet it is an interesting theory nonetheless. He deals comprehensively with Israel at the time of Herod and Hillel, and the life of Yehoshuah Ben Yosef (Jesus) and the birth of Christianity, under the ideas of Saul of Tarsus (Paul). Fast writes at length about how the Church planted the seeds of hatred that lead to the centuries of anti-Semitic terror and bloodshed against the Jewish people in Europe. He documents the Diaspora of the Jews when most of them where forced out of their homeland of Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel), by the Roman Empire, into the Mediterranean Lands the Balkans, Spain, Greece and Italy, and from there into Germany, France and England and then into Poland, Russia, the Baltic Lands, Belarus and the Ukraine.
The story of the Jews is a long and tragic tale of suffering and bloodshed of a people separated from their homeland for so many centuries and unable to determine their own future... Take this passage about the genocide visited upon the Jews in Mediaeval Germany by the Crusaders: " In Neuss, the Crusaders where drunk, and in the spirit of good fun they flung more than twenty women and a hundred children into the river, seeing how far two men could fling a screaming child. At Mors almost a thousand Jewish bodies where observed floating in the Rhine. At Alternah, the humane Archbishop Egbert attempted to defend the Jews and was beaten half to death. In Regensburg, the Jews where cut down in the streets. A Count Agthar likened it to rabbit hunting. A great pile of Jewish bodies was dragged into the main square, and crusaders amused themselves by beheading the dead. Over four thousand Jews where killed in the Rhine district alone."
But it also the story of their great contribution to all the lands in which they where dispersed, how they gave so much to the advancement of finance, commerce, medicine, navigation, astronomy, science, medicine and ideas.
And we also read in this volume the intriguing story of the Jews in other lands, like China and India, where thriving Jewish communities existed, as well as the large Jewish communities of the Middle East, which lived under the ebb and flow of alternating prosperity and persecution by their Muslim overlords.
There is a chapter of the Jews in America, and their remarkable contribution to that remarkable land.
Fast gives a fascinating account of the journey of Jewish history until the horrors of the most devastating blow of all, Hitler's holocaust.
There are troubling parallels between the systematic vilification of Jews before the Holocaust and the current vilification of the Jewish people and Israel. Suffice it to note the annual flood of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN; or the public opinion polls taken in Europe, which single out Israel as a danger to world peace; or the divestment campaigns being waged in the US against Israel; or the attempts to delegitimize Israel's very existence. The complicity of the Allies in WW II is mirrored by the support the PLO has been receiving from Europe, China and Russia to this very day.
If remembering Auschwitz should teach us anything, it is that we must all support Israel and the Jewish people against the vilification and the complicity we are witnessing, knowing where it inevitably leads.
As with the holocaust, the same kind of Jew-haters will again attempt to appease Arab rage with Jewish blood and land. We must stand up against it. Jews are still dying for only one reason; being a Jew.
Like a Phoenix out of the ashes of the Shoah (as the holocaust is known in Hebrew) the reborn Jewish State of Israel arose. The great hope of the Jewish Nation - the national anthem of Israel is Hatikvah - the Hope.
Fast points out that there was NEVER a time when there where not Jewish communities living in the Land of Israel, from the time of Moses until today: " In 1495 there where over two hundred Jewish families in Jerusalem, and there where functioning synagogues in half a hundred other spots in Palestine. In 1520, in Safed alone, there where two thousand Jewish families...By 1600, we must conclude that somewhere between 100 000 and 200 000 Jews where resident in Palestine."
The State of Israel embodies the hopes and lives on the Jewish Nation, with 5 million Jews today living in Israel. The destruction of Israel would mean another holocaust of Jews.
Hope writes in this book, what should ring out as an answer to Israel's loathsome critics: "The meaning of Israel is clear. The Jew has experienced too much death, and a portion of the Jewish people decided that they would die quietly no more. So it is: and no argument, no clever political talk, no logic and no parading of right and wrong can change this fact. The Jews returned to Israel because it was their ancient land. From 1810 onwards Jews in Palestine have been murdered by Arabs. The pious Jews of Safed , who would raise no hand in their defense , had been robbed and murdered and burned out again and again by Arabs-as the Jews in Jerusalem and Tiberias had been robbed and slain and burned out. Bedouin Arabs passed through Palestine at will-and robbed and killed Jews as a profitable thing. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries , Arab feudal lords in Palestine organized pogroms precisely as the Czar had organized pogroms. Palestine was a blighted and empty land until the Zionist Movement returned it to life..."
January 6, 2013
"The Jews, Story of a People", is not exactly a history, even though it tries to cover all major Jewish historical events. Fast's "Story of a People" reads more like the story of HIS people, a fascinating, at times emotional story of his people who are bookish, nonviolent, and resilient against all odds. It's foremost a story with an arc, of a people who have evolved into a single nation, who were often unbelievably discriminated against and who ultimately assembled and strengthened in modern times. His own values seem to strongly shape the narrative; he is a humanist and rationalist and as such, he sees biblical events and Jewish belief as strictly natural phenomena. For example, in his interpretation the bible is a collection of legends from an antique people, and Yahweh was a volcano worshipped.
Fast's story would be much more effective if he had used examples to back up his broad generalizations. As it is, he puts down in exact details the profile of Jewish personalities, from Moses to King Solomon, in a way that seems historically unqualified. Hist story is also often marked by rosy nostalgia for things of the past like mysticism (Kabbalah) and the Yiddish language.
I would recommend "The Jews, Story of a People" to anyone unfamiliar with Jewish history and interested to start out. For a first book on such a huge topic of 4000 years of history, a book that tries to entertain and avoid too many details may be a good pick. This book will hold your attention, won't get bogged down with details, and will give you an idea of the major periods in Jewish history. Most importantly, you will inevitably realize - or be reminded of - how fascinating a history this is.
Note: I'm currently reading another history of Jews: "A History of the Jews" by Paul Johnson. I will write a review when I'm done.
Fast's story would be much more effective if he had used examples to back up his broad generalizations. As it is, he puts down in exact details the profile of Jewish personalities, from Moses to King Solomon, in a way that seems historically unqualified. Hist story is also often marked by rosy nostalgia for things of the past like mysticism (Kabbalah) and the Yiddish language.
I would recommend "The Jews, Story of a People" to anyone unfamiliar with Jewish history and interested to start out. For a first book on such a huge topic of 4000 years of history, a book that tries to entertain and avoid too many details may be a good pick. This book will hold your attention, won't get bogged down with details, and will give you an idea of the major periods in Jewish history. Most importantly, you will inevitably realize - or be reminded of - how fascinating a history this is.
Note: I'm currently reading another history of Jews: "A History of the Jews" by Paul Johnson. I will write a review when I'm done.
January 16, 2025
Cynical, Revisionist Popular History based on Obsolete Anthropological Models, Disproven Modernist Theology, and the Author's Jaded Biases
I love popular histories and cultural studies. I love Bible stories, mythology, theology and Judaica. I love Middle Eastern and Medieval European history. And I love American history, WWII history, and almost anything I find about the State of Israel. So when I discovered Howard Fast's "The Jews: Story of a People" in a local thrift store, I was sure it was a book I would treasure.
"Why hadn't I heard of it before?" I wondered.
Because it's not very good, that's why.
I didn't know much about Howard Fast except that he was a Jewish novelist who worked in Hollywood. His most famous and successful novel and screenplay was "Spartacus."
In his biographical notes, he says that in about 1940, a rabbi asked him to write a history of Judaism for teenagers, a request that caught Fast off-guard because he was an absolutely secular Jew who had never read any Jewish history in his life. He set out to discover more about his ethnic and religious roots and twenty eight years later, he published his comprehensive popular history, "The Jews: Story of a People."
The book is based a three false premises which ultimately ruin it.
1. First is an anthropological theology model based on evolution that was academically popular in the 50s and 60s. According to this model, primitive man was innately superstitious and polytheistic, worshipping a plurality of gods. Man's theology "evolved" as man became more sophisticated, moving on to a lesser plurality of gods, then to mono-theism, and then to atheism. This nonsense was the theory of Soviet academics that tied evolution to everything, including the the triumph of socialism. Howard Fast was a card-carrying Communist Party member beginning in 1943, which explains why he chose this line of reasoning.
2. Second, his theories about the origins of the Jewish people and the "historical" books of the Old Testament come straight from the pages of the Higher Critics. The Higher Critics were modernist theologians (who, ironically given Fast's strong criticism of German nationalism and antisemitism, originated their theories in 19th Century German theology schools) who treated most of the Old Testament as myth, suggesting that all of the people and events of the Old Testament were made up by Jewish story-tellers. Thus, Howard Fast writes about every theory of Hebrew origins EXCEPT the Bible which he declares is "metaphysical" and untrustworthy.
3. Third, his premise that Anti-Semitism originated in the New Testament writings of Paul and is the Christian faith's core belief. Strangely enough, Fast gives Jesus Christ faint praise but suggests he was a Cabbalist who stole his best ideas from Hillel. Fast had time to read all of the Anti-Jesus and Anti-Christian references in the Talmud but appears not to have read a single page of the New Testament... or maybe just a single page.
Anyway, these shortcomings ruin the first 25% of this book and cause the reader to question how much of the rest of the book is Fast's biases and cynical assessments rather than genuine history.
Disappointments:
- He spend very little time writing about the modern Jewish State of Israel.
- While denigrating Christians throughout the book, Fast is unable to see any flaws in the Jewish people themselves (except to question those of them who accept the legitimacy of the Bible record).
- Fast constantly throws out provocative comments meant to undermine conventional thinking without ever explaining what he means. For example, he refers to the great American Jewish patriot Haym Salomon as being "rather more famous than his actual role deserved." Okay... and why? We aren't told. But for those of us who DO know a little about the role of Jewish founding fathers in the American revolution, such a disdainful comment needs explaining.
- Fast's ignorance of Christianity is a weakness. He admits that American evangelicals are less anti-Semitic than Roman Catholics or German Lutherans but doesn't know why. Well it matters. He should have researched it to see that it was the doctrine of Replacement Theology embraced by some Christians that usually led to Anti-Semitism. Not the core tenets of Christian orthodoxy.
- Fast complains about American institutions like Harvard University being anti-Semitic without realizing that the early charter of the Ivey League schools was to provide Christian Pastors to the Nation's pulpits and Protestant Christian higher education to its elites. The presence of a Roman Catholic or a Jewish student in such places would have been considered absurd in the early days of the Republic. Once these schools departed from their original charter, the doors slowly opened so they could eventually become the woke, progressive institutions they are today (and ironically, far more antisemitic because they embraced the progressive ideas of Fast's own leftist secularism).
What do I like about this book? I love history. I love little artifacts about Jewish life in Russia, and trivia information about Jewish mapmakers. I even like cryptic speculations like about the possible Jewishness of Christopher Columbus. But there was too much of Howard Fast in this history for me to feel confident that I was reading a trustworthy work. Fast was a brilliant novelist. But telling me that Moses and Joshua never met. That Moses was Egyptian and Jewish, and Joshua was a Canaanite Chief whose ten northern tribes allied themselves with the Jews from Egypt so they could stop eating pork and lobster, and that they all worshipped a she-goddess anyway and not the mono-theistic God of Abraham was just too much meshuga to me.
To be fair to Fast, he wrote this book at the height of the "God is Dead" era of mid-1960s academic thinking. He had just survived McCarthyism and was feeling vindicated about his participation in the American Communist struggle. His smug, cynical style indicates he relished undermining the faith of those of his own people, especially those Jews who trusted in the American democratic system with its Jewish Savior and Anti-Communist Patriotism--although it was the system in which Fast himself found success, wealth, and the American dream.
As a communist and secularist, Fast was just doing his duty.
Which is sad.
Read it if you must.
I love popular histories and cultural studies. I love Bible stories, mythology, theology and Judaica. I love Middle Eastern and Medieval European history. And I love American history, WWII history, and almost anything I find about the State of Israel. So when I discovered Howard Fast's "The Jews: Story of a People" in a local thrift store, I was sure it was a book I would treasure.
"Why hadn't I heard of it before?" I wondered.
Because it's not very good, that's why.
I didn't know much about Howard Fast except that he was a Jewish novelist who worked in Hollywood. His most famous and successful novel and screenplay was "Spartacus."
In his biographical notes, he says that in about 1940, a rabbi asked him to write a history of Judaism for teenagers, a request that caught Fast off-guard because he was an absolutely secular Jew who had never read any Jewish history in his life. He set out to discover more about his ethnic and religious roots and twenty eight years later, he published his comprehensive popular history, "The Jews: Story of a People."
The book is based a three false premises which ultimately ruin it.
1. First is an anthropological theology model based on evolution that was academically popular in the 50s and 60s. According to this model, primitive man was innately superstitious and polytheistic, worshipping a plurality of gods. Man's theology "evolved" as man became more sophisticated, moving on to a lesser plurality of gods, then to mono-theism, and then to atheism. This nonsense was the theory of Soviet academics that tied evolution to everything, including the the triumph of socialism. Howard Fast was a card-carrying Communist Party member beginning in 1943, which explains why he chose this line of reasoning.
2. Second, his theories about the origins of the Jewish people and the "historical" books of the Old Testament come straight from the pages of the Higher Critics. The Higher Critics were modernist theologians (who, ironically given Fast's strong criticism of German nationalism and antisemitism, originated their theories in 19th Century German theology schools) who treated most of the Old Testament as myth, suggesting that all of the people and events of the Old Testament were made up by Jewish story-tellers. Thus, Howard Fast writes about every theory of Hebrew origins EXCEPT the Bible which he declares is "metaphysical" and untrustworthy.
3. Third, his premise that Anti-Semitism originated in the New Testament writings of Paul and is the Christian faith's core belief. Strangely enough, Fast gives Jesus Christ faint praise but suggests he was a Cabbalist who stole his best ideas from Hillel. Fast had time to read all of the Anti-Jesus and Anti-Christian references in the Talmud but appears not to have read a single page of the New Testament... or maybe just a single page.
Anyway, these shortcomings ruin the first 25% of this book and cause the reader to question how much of the rest of the book is Fast's biases and cynical assessments rather than genuine history.
Disappointments:
- He spend very little time writing about the modern Jewish State of Israel.
- While denigrating Christians throughout the book, Fast is unable to see any flaws in the Jewish people themselves (except to question those of them who accept the legitimacy of the Bible record).
- Fast constantly throws out provocative comments meant to undermine conventional thinking without ever explaining what he means. For example, he refers to the great American Jewish patriot Haym Salomon as being "rather more famous than his actual role deserved." Okay... and why? We aren't told. But for those of us who DO know a little about the role of Jewish founding fathers in the American revolution, such a disdainful comment needs explaining.
- Fast's ignorance of Christianity is a weakness. He admits that American evangelicals are less anti-Semitic than Roman Catholics or German Lutherans but doesn't know why. Well it matters. He should have researched it to see that it was the doctrine of Replacement Theology embraced by some Christians that usually led to Anti-Semitism. Not the core tenets of Christian orthodoxy.
- Fast complains about American institutions like Harvard University being anti-Semitic without realizing that the early charter of the Ivey League schools was to provide Christian Pastors to the Nation's pulpits and Protestant Christian higher education to its elites. The presence of a Roman Catholic or a Jewish student in such places would have been considered absurd in the early days of the Republic. Once these schools departed from their original charter, the doors slowly opened so they could eventually become the woke, progressive institutions they are today (and ironically, far more antisemitic because they embraced the progressive ideas of Fast's own leftist secularism).
What do I like about this book? I love history. I love little artifacts about Jewish life in Russia, and trivia information about Jewish mapmakers. I even like cryptic speculations like about the possible Jewishness of Christopher Columbus. But there was too much of Howard Fast in this history for me to feel confident that I was reading a trustworthy work. Fast was a brilliant novelist. But telling me that Moses and Joshua never met. That Moses was Egyptian and Jewish, and Joshua was a Canaanite Chief whose ten northern tribes allied themselves with the Jews from Egypt so they could stop eating pork and lobster, and that they all worshipped a she-goddess anyway and not the mono-theistic God of Abraham was just too much meshuga to me.
To be fair to Fast, he wrote this book at the height of the "God is Dead" era of mid-1960s academic thinking. He had just survived McCarthyism and was feeling vindicated about his participation in the American Communist struggle. His smug, cynical style indicates he relished undermining the faith of those of his own people, especially those Jews who trusted in the American democratic system with its Jewish Savior and Anti-Communist Patriotism--although it was the system in which Fast himself found success, wealth, and the American dream.
As a communist and secularist, Fast was just doing his duty.
Which is sad.
Read it if you must.
January 3, 2024
Buy.
A wonderful saga of history. Backed by excellent prose, this extremely positive (why shouldn't it be?) account of the history of the Jewish people is remarkable and always captivating.
There are some things to be aware of though. At times, some of the claims, which strike the paper with the air of absolute certainty and the quickness of a sudden gust of wind, require more clarity, explanation and historical context. Students of history should be well equipped to know when to take certain arguments with a grain of salt. There is a tendency at times to draw back, what feels like, every significant invention to Jewish founders in some way.
And yet, I don't think the above really takes away from the majesty of this ambitious and remarkable tale. It is history - even if the author sweeps through controversial or contentious issues with the hand of an all knowing being himself. Fast certainly doesn't lack confidence and the book is mostly better for it.
A wonderful saga of history. Backed by excellent prose, this extremely positive (why shouldn't it be?) account of the history of the Jewish people is remarkable and always captivating.
There are some things to be aware of though. At times, some of the claims, which strike the paper with the air of absolute certainty and the quickness of a sudden gust of wind, require more clarity, explanation and historical context. Students of history should be well equipped to know when to take certain arguments with a grain of salt. There is a tendency at times to draw back, what feels like, every significant invention to Jewish founders in some way.
And yet, I don't think the above really takes away from the majesty of this ambitious and remarkable tale. It is history - even if the author sweeps through controversial or contentious issues with the hand of an all knowing being himself. Fast certainly doesn't lack confidence and the book is mostly better for it.
April 15, 2020
If you’ve been taught that God handed down the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and that the Jewish people ever afterward worshiped a single almighty god, you owe it to yourself to read Howard Fast’s extraordinary book, The Jews. As Fast reveals in this eminently readable and endlessly fascinating story, neither of those myths is true—but the true stories are even richer and more compelling. In just four hundred pages, one of the most prolific authors of the twentieth century manages to upend many of the prevailing beliefs about the history of the Jewish people. This is Jewish history full of surprises.
A spirited Jewish history full of surprises
Fast’s tale of the Jewish people in prehistoric times is fascinating. His account of the Beni-Yisrael (the Children of Israel, the Bedouin people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) casts light on the Biblical account, fleshing it out in some ways, contradicting it in others. In fact, for hundreds of years, the Beni-Yisrael and the Jews Moses led from Egypt about 3,250 years ago were essentially separate peoples linked only by the fraying threads of history and language. As Fast writes, “the Bible is the history of Moses and the God Yahweh from the point of view of the single powerful tribe that gained ascendancy over the rest of the Beni-Yisrael, the Tribe of Judah, the Yehudim, the Jews.” In fact, “the northern tribes feared and hated the Jews, whom they looked upon as barbarians. On the other hand, the Jews, fierce, proud desert people, who still regarded war as a sacred calling in the service of Yahweh, had only contempt for the northerners.”
Similarly, Fast’s history of the Jewish people surprises with his account of the reign of Kings David and Solomon, who in reality were far different from the pictures of legend. (For example, “Solomon was not very wise, nor was he the author of that book in the Bible which is called ‘The Wisdom of Solomon.'”) In fact, you’re likely to be surprised on page after page in this richly researched account.
Here are just a handful of the other revelations in The Jews.
Monotheism came slowly to the Jewish people
The god Yahweh worshiped by the people Moses led from Egypt was, like so many other deities known to ancient peoples throughout the world, “the fierce, proud god of the high places”—the powerful master of thunder and lightning, an angry god, the god of the Jews and no others. “The Levites who were led by Moses were not monotheists; monotheism was still far in the future,” Fast writes. In fact, only hundreds of years later, in the eighth century BCE, the prophet Isaiah preached about faith in a manner far more recognizable to our modern minds. Only then and later did Jewish theologians settle on the concept of an unseen, all-knowing God, without form or physical substance, a universal God.
The Catholic Church promoted anti-Semitism for nearly 2,000 years
Anti-Semitism has roots in the distant past, with evidence of racist hatred directed toward Jews as early as twenty-two hundred years ago. But “the [Catholic] Church from its very inception organized anti-Semitism in modern, clerical guise, spared no effort to inoculate the entire Catholic population with it, and gave it to the German pagans along with Christianity.” In fact, the Catholic history of anti-Semitism began with Paul of Tarsus. Though himself a Jew, as was Jesus himself, of course—there were no Christians before Paul set off on his proselytizing mission—Paul resented his treatment by the priests who represented the Jewish establishment. “For the first time in man’s history, a religion was created with a built-in hate, a holy incitement to murder and destroy . . .” Paul’s hatred is the root source of the atrocities directed at Jews throughout the two millennia that followed.
Jews were prominent in trade, cartography, medicine, ship design, and navigation
Many popular historical accounts paint the Jews monochromatically as moneylenders. It’s true that “Jews lent money, but Catholics lent more. . . [and] the Christian moneylender asked ten or twenty times as much interest as the Jew.” However, Fast writes, “The one indispensable service the Jews performed—and which made it possible for them to survive the early Diaspora—was to keep open the routes of trade.” For centuries, Jewish cartographers, navigators, and ship designers helped make it possible for the Portuguese and Spanish to sail on their voyages of discovery. And Jewish physicians brought the leading contemporary insights of medical science to the courts of Europe and the homes of its wealthiest nobles and merchants.
But, above all, it was Jewish merchants who tended to be the most prominent representatives of their communities. They brought the wealth of the Orient to Europe: silks, perfume, pearls, diamonds, jade, and pharmaceuticals “more precious than gold.” Thus, Fast notes, “By the middle of the ninth century, the Jews had almost monopolized the trade between Asia and Europe; and while this monopoly was not to prevail very long, it was an enormous source of Jewish wealth while it lasted.”
Poland was “the cradle and the salvation of modern Jewry”
“Poland itself was the cradle and the salvation of modern Jewry,” Fast writes, “and only through Poland in its national vigor did the few thousand Jews who fled from the medieval horror and soul-sickness of Germany grow into the millions of Ashkenazi Jews who comprise the great majority of the Jewish people today . . .” However, the Ashkenazi, among whom I count myself, have emerged as a majority only during the last several hundred years. In earlier times, when Jews were largely a people of the Mediterranean basin, it was the Sephardim— the Jews of Spain—who dominated Jewish communities in North Africa, southern Europe, and the Turkish Empire following their expulsion by the Inquisition in 1492 (“after a residence there of almost two thousand years”).
Jews have lived in Palestine for more than 3,000 years
Many of those who support the Palestinian cause assert that the Jews had abandoned their land in the Middle East and were newcomers in the twentieth century. Fast gives the lie to this claim. He writes, “there had never been a time since Moses led the Jews into the hills of Judea that Palestine was without Jews—not a year or a month or a day when there were not Jews living somewhere in Palestine, a few families here, a tiny community there, a group of people in Jerusalem where they hid, lied, dissembled, but somehow survived the passage of centuries.”
As I’ve said, this is Jewish history full of surprises.
Summing up the modern history
Fast sums up the modern history of the Jewish people in economical fashion. “[O]ur tale is of the great mass of a people who fled north through Italy to escape the results of Emperor Constantine’s edict against them, who entered Germany and Rhineland France, coming there only in the thousands—who fled from the horror of Germany by the tens of thousands, who found hope and safety in ancient [pagan] Poland, who increased there into hundreds of thousands and spread throughout the whole Polish Empire, who came then under the domination of the Czars of Russia, who fled from them to America and to western Europe—but who were nevertheless so numerous that after most of the emigration had taken place, at the outbreak of World War I, there were almost six million Jews in those lands ruled by Russia.” And it was from Russia, and later the Soviet Union, that the great mass of immigrants came to establish and fight for the State of Israel.
About the author
Howard Fast (1914-2003) wrote scores of novels, short stories, and articles as well as screenplays for his novel Spartacus, among many other films and television production. The Jews is one of his six works of nonfiction. He was the son of immigrants from Britain and Ukraine, both Jews. He joined the Communist Party of the USA in 1943 and later served three months in prison for his refusal to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was while he was in prison that he began writing Spartacus, his best-known novel.
A spirited Jewish history full of surprises
Fast’s tale of the Jewish people in prehistoric times is fascinating. His account of the Beni-Yisrael (the Children of Israel, the Bedouin people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) casts light on the Biblical account, fleshing it out in some ways, contradicting it in others. In fact, for hundreds of years, the Beni-Yisrael and the Jews Moses led from Egypt about 3,250 years ago were essentially separate peoples linked only by the fraying threads of history and language. As Fast writes, “the Bible is the history of Moses and the God Yahweh from the point of view of the single powerful tribe that gained ascendancy over the rest of the Beni-Yisrael, the Tribe of Judah, the Yehudim, the Jews.” In fact, “the northern tribes feared and hated the Jews, whom they looked upon as barbarians. On the other hand, the Jews, fierce, proud desert people, who still regarded war as a sacred calling in the service of Yahweh, had only contempt for the northerners.”
Similarly, Fast’s history of the Jewish people surprises with his account of the reign of Kings David and Solomon, who in reality were far different from the pictures of legend. (For example, “Solomon was not very wise, nor was he the author of that book in the Bible which is called ‘The Wisdom of Solomon.'”) In fact, you’re likely to be surprised on page after page in this richly researched account.
Here are just a handful of the other revelations in The Jews.
Monotheism came slowly to the Jewish people
The god Yahweh worshiped by the people Moses led from Egypt was, like so many other deities known to ancient peoples throughout the world, “the fierce, proud god of the high places”—the powerful master of thunder and lightning, an angry god, the god of the Jews and no others. “The Levites who were led by Moses were not monotheists; monotheism was still far in the future,” Fast writes. In fact, only hundreds of years later, in the eighth century BCE, the prophet Isaiah preached about faith in a manner far more recognizable to our modern minds. Only then and later did Jewish theologians settle on the concept of an unseen, all-knowing God, without form or physical substance, a universal God.
The Catholic Church promoted anti-Semitism for nearly 2,000 years
Anti-Semitism has roots in the distant past, with evidence of racist hatred directed toward Jews as early as twenty-two hundred years ago. But “the [Catholic] Church from its very inception organized anti-Semitism in modern, clerical guise, spared no effort to inoculate the entire Catholic population with it, and gave it to the German pagans along with Christianity.” In fact, the Catholic history of anti-Semitism began with Paul of Tarsus. Though himself a Jew, as was Jesus himself, of course—there were no Christians before Paul set off on his proselytizing mission—Paul resented his treatment by the priests who represented the Jewish establishment. “For the first time in man’s history, a religion was created with a built-in hate, a holy incitement to murder and destroy . . .” Paul’s hatred is the root source of the atrocities directed at Jews throughout the two millennia that followed.
Jews were prominent in trade, cartography, medicine, ship design, and navigation
Many popular historical accounts paint the Jews monochromatically as moneylenders. It’s true that “Jews lent money, but Catholics lent more. . . [and] the Christian moneylender asked ten or twenty times as much interest as the Jew.” However, Fast writes, “The one indispensable service the Jews performed—and which made it possible for them to survive the early Diaspora—was to keep open the routes of trade.” For centuries, Jewish cartographers, navigators, and ship designers helped make it possible for the Portuguese and Spanish to sail on their voyages of discovery. And Jewish physicians brought the leading contemporary insights of medical science to the courts of Europe and the homes of its wealthiest nobles and merchants.
But, above all, it was Jewish merchants who tended to be the most prominent representatives of their communities. They brought the wealth of the Orient to Europe: silks, perfume, pearls, diamonds, jade, and pharmaceuticals “more precious than gold.” Thus, Fast notes, “By the middle of the ninth century, the Jews had almost monopolized the trade between Asia and Europe; and while this monopoly was not to prevail very long, it was an enormous source of Jewish wealth while it lasted.”
Poland was “the cradle and the salvation of modern Jewry”
“Poland itself was the cradle and the salvation of modern Jewry,” Fast writes, “and only through Poland in its national vigor did the few thousand Jews who fled from the medieval horror and soul-sickness of Germany grow into the millions of Ashkenazi Jews who comprise the great majority of the Jewish people today . . .” However, the Ashkenazi, among whom I count myself, have emerged as a majority only during the last several hundred years. In earlier times, when Jews were largely a people of the Mediterranean basin, it was the Sephardim— the Jews of Spain—who dominated Jewish communities in North Africa, southern Europe, and the Turkish Empire following their expulsion by the Inquisition in 1492 (“after a residence there of almost two thousand years”).
Jews have lived in Palestine for more than 3,000 years
Many of those who support the Palestinian cause assert that the Jews had abandoned their land in the Middle East and were newcomers in the twentieth century. Fast gives the lie to this claim. He writes, “there had never been a time since Moses led the Jews into the hills of Judea that Palestine was without Jews—not a year or a month or a day when there were not Jews living somewhere in Palestine, a few families here, a tiny community there, a group of people in Jerusalem where they hid, lied, dissembled, but somehow survived the passage of centuries.”
As I’ve said, this is Jewish history full of surprises.
Summing up the modern history
Fast sums up the modern history of the Jewish people in economical fashion. “[O]ur tale is of the great mass of a people who fled north through Italy to escape the results of Emperor Constantine’s edict against them, who entered Germany and Rhineland France, coming there only in the thousands—who fled from the horror of Germany by the tens of thousands, who found hope and safety in ancient [pagan] Poland, who increased there into hundreds of thousands and spread throughout the whole Polish Empire, who came then under the domination of the Czars of Russia, who fled from them to America and to western Europe—but who were nevertheless so numerous that after most of the emigration had taken place, at the outbreak of World War I, there were almost six million Jews in those lands ruled by Russia.” And it was from Russia, and later the Soviet Union, that the great mass of immigrants came to establish and fight for the State of Israel.
About the author
Howard Fast (1914-2003) wrote scores of novels, short stories, and articles as well as screenplays for his novel Spartacus, among many other films and television production. The Jews is one of his six works of nonfiction. He was the son of immigrants from Britain and Ukraine, both Jews. He joined the Communist Party of the USA in 1943 and later served three months in prison for his refusal to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was while he was in prison that he began writing Spartacus, his best-known novel.
April 11, 2022
Captivating. As a Christian myself, I learned so much about the points where we differ, not only in theology but in historical understanding. At times, more speculation than I expected (I usually read straight nf so kept looking for citations). At other times, he showed a bias and lack of critical assessment (ie. section on Paul), but overall, well worth it. The writing style impressed me and I learned a great deal.
May 15, 2019
One of a handful of books in my lifetime that I did not finish
I wanted very much to read this book. Being a lifetime learner and avid reader I was excited to come across this book. I had long wondered about what could only be a rich and rewarding history of the Jewish religion and I felt this would be an ideal book to learn about Jewish history. I got as far as the 9th section before I had to call it quits. I found it very difficult to read. The history of the religion just was not described in a way that someone who is not Jewish could easily follow. I was hoping for more of an understanding of the 12 tribes, which Mr. Fast days there were actually 13or maybe 14 tribes. More ideology of what the Jewish faith believes of Solomon, Moses, David...they are but a footnote. Perhaps I simply chose the wrong book for what I was hoping to learn. In all my life I have had a habit that if I purchase a book and give my time, of which I have little to spare, I have to finish the book, no matter how awful it might be. I just couldn't finish this book, it did not peak not keep my attention. I found the author's style unpleasant and finally decided at 3:30 in the morning, after hours of trying to get through the book, it just was not worth my time. I will search for a book on the beliefs and history of Jewish men and women of the past to learn about what must be a fascinating and rich history. I'm sorry but I do not recommend this book.
I wanted very much to read this book. Being a lifetime learner and avid reader I was excited to come across this book. I had long wondered about what could only be a rich and rewarding history of the Jewish religion and I felt this would be an ideal book to learn about Jewish history. I got as far as the 9th section before I had to call it quits. I found it very difficult to read. The history of the religion just was not described in a way that someone who is not Jewish could easily follow. I was hoping for more of an understanding of the 12 tribes, which Mr. Fast days there were actually 13or maybe 14 tribes. More ideology of what the Jewish faith believes of Solomon, Moses, David...they are but a footnote. Perhaps I simply chose the wrong book for what I was hoping to learn. In all my life I have had a habit that if I purchase a book and give my time, of which I have little to spare, I have to finish the book, no matter how awful it might be. I just couldn't finish this book, it did not peak not keep my attention. I found the author's style unpleasant and finally decided at 3:30 in the morning, after hours of trying to get through the book, it just was not worth my time. I will search for a book on the beliefs and history of Jewish men and women of the past to learn about what must be a fascinating and rich history. I'm sorry but I do not recommend this book.
October 22, 2023
This book has been on my Kindle for a very long time, and this seemed to be the time to finally read it, given the outbreak of war in Israel - again. I wanted to learn why Jews have been persecuted throughout history, and I did get some of that, but still feel that my knowledge is lacking. I didn't look at the publication date (1968) when I chose this book, and I was disappointed that the story would be incomplete. The State of Israel was only 20 years old at the time, and so much has happened since then. It should not be confused with a complete history, though the author cites many sources. Fast's personal bias often shows through. But there can be no doubt that he was proud of the courage and resilience that Jews have displayed throughout history and throughout the diaspora. When dealt a bad hand, they have persevered and often thrived.
The chapter on the Holocaust, was, by far, the hardest to read. Indeed, dedicating just one chapter to covering this horrific period might seem inadequate. But so much has been written about that particular period in Jewish history, that I suppose Last felt we didn't need to hear more.
The chapter on the Holocaust, was, by far, the hardest to read. Indeed, dedicating just one chapter to covering this horrific period might seem inadequate. But so much has been written about that particular period in Jewish history, that I suppose Last felt we didn't need to hear more.
April 18, 2021
Howard Fast je rozprávač príbehov a tento podal pútavo a presvedčivo. Začína ďaleko v minulosti v púšti arabského polostrova, dopĺňa pozadie známych starozákonných biblických príbehov ale to najzaujímavejšie príde, keď popisuje posledných 2 000 rokov. Bavilo ma putovať spolu s Židmi jednotlivými kapitolami, objavovať na čo všetko malo židovstvo vplyv, kde sa vzala diaspóra, ako sa židovský ľud dostal z Palestíny do celej Európy a neskôr aj Ameriky, alebo odkiaľ sa zjavil jidiš. Posledná kapitola rozoberajúca holokaust bola prekvapivo menej emotívna a skôr rozoberala postoje a činy jednotlivých krajín pred II. sv. vojnou ako samotné vyvražďovanie Židov.
Áno, je to kniha zo židovského uhla pohľadu, nie je to práca historika, s mnohými názormi sa dá diskutovať ale ako pokus knižne a ucelene zachytiť príbeh židovského národa je vydarená.
Áno, je to kniha zo židovského uhla pohľadu, nie je to práca historika, s mnohými názormi sa dá diskutovať ale ako pokus knižne a ucelene zachytiť príbeh židovského národa je vydarená.
August 2, 2019
I have read 2/3 of the book.
April 2, 2023
A bit out of date but so much that I knew next to nothing about. He has a breezy non- historian's style (he wrote Spartacus) which is mostly a good thing but sometimes he oversells his likely very valid points.
March 2, 2019
Wonderfully informative and moving history
Loved this history of the Jews.
Perhaps no other group of people have been more influential over the last millennia in the development of civilization as the Jews.
This work celebrates the remarkable history of the Jews while also telling of untold tragedy visited upon them throughout the ages.
Great book.
Loved this history of the Jews.
Perhaps no other group of people have been more influential over the last millennia in the development of civilization as the Jews.
This work celebrates the remarkable history of the Jews while also telling of untold tragedy visited upon them throughout the ages.
Great book.
December 8, 2019
Fantastic! This book is among the best books I have read in my life, because it was truly eye opening, and that's saying something.
In February of 2015, when I pen this review, the US leads the way in the pracctice of respect for all faiths. Yet, racial/religious hatred is globally directed at Muslims, and especially so in Christian Europe and the US, so the former should have a very good idea of what it means to be persecuted for one's religion. In that sense this book goes towards the same thought of shedding light on the appalling history of Jewish persecution and how it was grossly unjust. But as Fast himself repeatedly stresses, being Jewish is singular and unique, so the Jewish experience of persecution also has to be viewed as such.
AS a Muslim, I was fascinated by this book to be looking at the history of the Jews, because I had Surah Fatiha and Surah Baqarah (chapter 1 and 2) of the Qur'an in my mind viz a viz Allah/God and the Jews.
Frankly, I was baffled by Surah Baqarah/Qur'an when I re-read the verses on the Jews for the first time after interacting with Americans Jews who were my professors etc. The Quranic verses appeared rather harsh to say the least. In superficial observation, life in this new millennium-currently only fifteen years old- seemed far removed from religious thoughts and especially from religious persecution. The American Jews appeared to me as a group of modern, non-ritualistic, open-minded, educated and very normal people, worthy of Islamic respect owed to the teacher aka the professor.
However, what lay in their hearts was not known to me till I read this book. It was however, always known to Allah/God. It is truly astonishing to read this book, because Surah Baqarah then becomes the answer to ALL the "Jewish" issues/dilemmas/tragedies/horrors, which the author relates.
The first chapter of the Qur'an is a seven-verse prayer. The second chapter is really the beginning of Divine Revelation. The first few verses declare Allah to be the Creator and they command mankind to worship Him alone, by following His Divine Guidance, the Qur'an. Then we are told the story of creation (Adam and Hawwa/Eve). Immediately afterwards, the verses address the Jews.
If you read this book, you understand WHY the Qur'an addresses the Jews and relates their failures. The Qur'an is Divinely authored, so it is not a human source-with racial, material or envious motivations-that is commanding the Jews. It is God Himself. When God commands a person or a group, that person or group better respond on a top priority basis.
The current atrocities and genocide unleashed on Palestinians by the Israelis is a case in point.
If I start writing a thorough review, it would become a book in itself, so for now, it suffices to say that this book answered ALL the questions I had viz a viz the Qur'anic stance on the Jews.
In February of 2015, when I pen this review, the US leads the way in the pracctice of respect for all faiths. Yet, racial/religious hatred is globally directed at Muslims, and especially so in Christian Europe and the US, so the former should have a very good idea of what it means to be persecuted for one's religion. In that sense this book goes towards the same thought of shedding light on the appalling history of Jewish persecution and how it was grossly unjust. But as Fast himself repeatedly stresses, being Jewish is singular and unique, so the Jewish experience of persecution also has to be viewed as such.
AS a Muslim, I was fascinated by this book to be looking at the history of the Jews, because I had Surah Fatiha and Surah Baqarah (chapter 1 and 2) of the Qur'an in my mind viz a viz Allah/God and the Jews.
Frankly, I was baffled by Surah Baqarah/Qur'an when I re-read the verses on the Jews for the first time after interacting with Americans Jews who were my professors etc. The Quranic verses appeared rather harsh to say the least. In superficial observation, life in this new millennium-currently only fifteen years old- seemed far removed from religious thoughts and especially from religious persecution. The American Jews appeared to me as a group of modern, non-ritualistic, open-minded, educated and very normal people, worthy of Islamic respect owed to the teacher aka the professor.
However, what lay in their hearts was not known to me till I read this book. It was however, always known to Allah/God. It is truly astonishing to read this book, because Surah Baqarah then becomes the answer to ALL the "Jewish" issues/dilemmas/tragedies/horrors, which the author relates.
The first chapter of the Qur'an is a seven-verse prayer. The second chapter is really the beginning of Divine Revelation. The first few verses declare Allah to be the Creator and they command mankind to worship Him alone, by following His Divine Guidance, the Qur'an. Then we are told the story of creation (Adam and Hawwa/Eve). Immediately afterwards, the verses address the Jews.
If you read this book, you understand WHY the Qur'an addresses the Jews and relates their failures. The Qur'an is Divinely authored, so it is not a human source-with racial, material or envious motivations-that is commanding the Jews. It is God Himself. When God commands a person or a group, that person or group better respond on a top priority basis.
The current atrocities and genocide unleashed on Palestinians by the Israelis is a case in point.
If I start writing a thorough review, it would become a book in itself, so for now, it suffices to say that this book answered ALL the questions I had viz a viz the Qur'anic stance on the Jews.
March 22, 2020
The many movements of the multiple groups of Jewish people could have been very interesting had I not been confused by the manner in which they were introduced which impacted the ability to connect these various Jewish groups later on in the history. The writing style was so aggravating that I don’t want to go back through it to see if I could decipher the information. Some of the statements appeared to be based on some emotional assumptions on which the author had strong biased feelings that were not supported by the documentation presented.
July 29, 2008
A very good start for those who want to break into the mystery of the 4000 years of Jewish history. A good and handy paperback that puts everything in the nutshell.
December 27, 2018
More than I really wanted to know - and several of his bits of info need citations. Mt. Sinai a volcano?
January 27, 2015
A fascinating book which I would like to listen to again to absorb more of the details.
March 25, 2024
Enlightening And Educational
As a person of Jewish heritage,I was motivated to read this book.I'll learn so much from it because the author did an outstanding job Tracing the history of Judaism Back from before the birth of Jesus to The modern day.As the grandson Grandparents On both sides Our family,I learned so much about our heritage, one thing in particular that I felt was personally valuable was the name of the birthplace of my paternal grandfather -- Elisavetgrad, Ukraine.
While I was raised a Christian by my parents, an eternally grateful to my grandparents for my exposure to Judaism. I am proud to say That I am of Jewish heritage!
As a person of Jewish heritage,I was motivated to read this book.I'll learn so much from it because the author did an outstanding job Tracing the history of Judaism Back from before the birth of Jesus to The modern day.As the grandson Grandparents On both sides Our family,I learned so much about our heritage, one thing in particular that I felt was personally valuable was the name of the birthplace of my paternal grandfather -- Elisavetgrad, Ukraine.
While I was raised a Christian by my parents, an eternally grateful to my grandparents for my exposure to Judaism. I am proud to say That I am of Jewish heritage!
March 13, 2025
The book serves more as a historical narrative than a biblical story, which is a refreshing take. All the highs and lows and historical facts of Judaism and the Jewish people are explored in this book. Reading about the real Moses, David, Solomon, whomever they may have been, from an evidence-based perspective, was a perspective I loved to explore. The author is biased not only by his heritage, but as you can read with his choice tone, it is within this bias it is more so an endearment for Judaism. It reads as an historical epic with story arcs, conflicts, heroes, anti-heroes, far flung places, and best of all it treats it with the respect and truth-based approach it deserves
April 8, 2019
I chose this book to read mostly because I wanted to know why Jews had been persecuted so horribly over centuries; I was dismayed that the origins were rooted in the Catholic Church, exacerbated by the Crusades, and just kept continuing. This was a fascinating read of the history of the Jewish people but did not exactly answer my question; both learned and successful Jews as well as the very poor peasants in Poland and Russia were eventually persecuted— and now the rise of white nationalists in America is continuing the hatred.
It was interesting to learn how the state of Israel was created.
It was interesting to learn how the state of Israel was created.
January 19, 2020
This is a very readable history of the Jews. Apparently, anti-Semitism is as old as the history of the Jews. Who hasn't tortured them and tried to eliminate them? It is a miracle that they have survived and so many of them have actually thrived. I did not realize how central peace was to their beliefs. They would still be a peaceful people if they had not been pushed over the brink by the Nazis. I am grateful to Howard Fast for making it possible for me to understand the Jewish people better.
May 11, 2018
Even though the book is 50 years old it was very interesting. Learning that the Jewish people are non-violent and believe in the sanctity of life compared to other people and religions was enlightening - at least until they are forced to defend themselves. Plus that no one would have ever cared about them and they could have lived their lives without outside interference except for the lies espoused by the Catholic church.
June 10, 2021
Realmente muy interesante. Una pieza de lectura indispensable dentro de la cultura universal, narrada de forma amena y pasajera que permite comprender la historia de los judíos desde una perspectiva propia (la de Howard Fast, hijo de inmigrantes judíos).
Totalmente recomendable.
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Totalmente recomendable.
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June 26, 2022
This was going to get a higher rating but the author makes to many statements without explaining his reasoning. Perhaps it would have been better if I had read the book instead of listening but other comments seem to express a similar frustration to my own.
Overall I think this book is a very good overview of the Jewish people for anyone who doesn't have much of a background in their history to begin with, but a serious historian will be frustrated.
Overall I think this book is a very good overview of the Jewish people for anyone who doesn't have much of a background in their history to begin with, but a serious historian will be frustrated.
October 27, 2021
It is worth reading despite my objection to his accusing Paul the Apostle for laying the foundation for persecution and murder of the Jewish people for the 2,000 years to date. Biased? Or a lack of understanding of Paul's writings in the New Testament? Or a back-handed accusation of the Church as a whole? Persecution of the Jewish people is as old as time and no individual alone is singly responsible for the persecution and murder of a people.
December 17, 2022
A must read
Every Jew, and every anti-Semite for that matter, should read this book. The beginning is largely pre-history, not familiar, and somewhat tedious. But then we get into the Middle Ages and the forming of Israel after WWII. We can and should relate to that part of Jewish history.
Every Jew, and every anti-Semite for that matter, should read this book. The beginning is largely pre-history, not familiar, and somewhat tedious. But then we get into the Middle Ages and the forming of Israel after WWII. We can and should relate to that part of Jewish history.
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January 1, 2022Remarkable People
Howard Fast writes in a clear and concise as possible manner to describe the fortitude of the Jewish people without having the necessity of detailing wars and battles. A must read for every Jew who is proud to be so identified.
Howard Fast writes in a clear and concise as possible manner to describe the fortitude of the Jewish people without having the necessity of detailing wars and battles. A must read for every Jew who is proud to be so identified.
February 15, 2022
A concise history
Very easy to read history. I enjoyed every page of the book. My only complaint is that the author should have touched briefly on the wars in the ‘40’s with the Arabs and formal creation of Israel.
Very easy to read history. I enjoyed every page of the book. My only complaint is that the author should have touched briefly on the wars in the ‘40’s with the Arabs and formal creation of Israel.
April 20, 2018
Well researched and well written. I undertook this book to help me understand the virulence of anti-semitism throughout history. It has made a contribution to a further understanding
April 16, 2019
אחי גיבורי התהילה בעברית
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