Picture History of Jewish Civilization

Defeat and disaster, triumph and glory––these are the great themes in the story of the Jewish people, as recorded in the Bible and later in the annals of nations. Over three thousand years ago the Hebrews first entered history as a political and cultural entity; this absorbing volume recounts their extraordinary saga, starting with the tribes of Israel, out of whose way of life grew Judaism and Christianity, and continuing through the modern re-emergence of Israel as a Middle Eastern power.
Anyone who is concerned with the course of world events as they unfold in our day will find in this full-scale portrait of an ancient yet entirely contemporary civilization a mine of interesting and relevant material. For out of this history, in which Jews have intermittently known power and prestige against a background of exile, dispersion, persecution, and ghettoization, came not only the great teachers and leaders in Israel, such as Hillel, Rashi, the Vilna Gaon, Herzl, and Weizmann, but such seminal world figures as Spinoza, Marx, Freud, and Einstein.
Wherever the Jews wandered, they took with them their own cultural heritage. In addition, they adapted to their expressive needs the talents and techniques of the peoples among whom they settled. Thus, the history of Jewish art and culture shows an astonishing richness and diversity whose scope has only recently come to be recognized.