How accurate and balanced is Paul Johnson's 'A History of the Jews'?
score:5
Just reading the reviews from my perspective as a student of Jewish history and religion, I find much to object to, although I don't necessarily disagree with his ultimate conclusion that the Jewish people believed so much that they were a special people, protected by God, that they evolved into one and survived in Houdini-like fashion. From one example in Hertzberg's review, regarding that there is "no evidence" that Jesus was a student of Hillel, struck me as a very uninformed answer. First, the two were 100 years apart. Second, Johnson seems unaware that there was a School of Hillel (Beis Hillel) that continued his teachings and philosophies in the years contemporary with Jesus -- therefore Jesus could have studied (and probably did study) with Beis Hillel. Another criticism is his failure to take notice of the Sephardic Jewish world in Moslem-occupied African and Asian lands, including the Lavant. If true, then that misses a great deal of history including Maimonedes and his great contributions to Jewish thought and philosophy, Nachmanides, and the codification of Jewish Law by Rabbi Joseph Karo. It is unlikely any Jewish history would miss either or the amazing scholarship of Sephardic Jews in the Iberian Peninsula prior to the 1492 expulsion.
The reviews also take him to task for relying on secondary sources. I don't consider that a serious problem as he would need mastery of Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Yiddish. Furthermore, to get a real grasp of rabbinic learning and philosophy from primary sources, I believe would take years of study of hundreds of volumes of books -- something most historians choose to forego (and why many historians do poorly when trying to describe Jewish history regarding religious teachings).
But all in all, I respect the historians who reviewed his books and their mostly positive conclusions.
More post
- 📝 Who is the Pentagon General nicknamed Darth Vader referred to by Arthur C Clarke?
- 📝 Was democracy present in India before British colonization?
- 📝 When and why did war chariots stop being used?
- 📝 Which founding fathers pushed for the right to bear arms?
- 📝 What's a good general history book on Italy, 1400-1600?
- 📝 Literacy in the classical world
- 📝 Why were (are) food tasters human?
- 📝 Did an English company famous for its hidden purpose in the 1720s ever reveal its undertaking?
- 📝 Which nation on Earth has been under foreign rule the longest?
- 📝 Is the swastika in The Great Gatsby anti-semitic?
- 📝 Why did the Middle Kingdom stop building pyramid tombs?
- 📝 If WW2 trench warfare really was a poor use of outdated tactics then what what would have been more appropriate tactics to employ?
- 📝 Who left Fort Ross to defect to Mexico?
- 📝 Can you identify this seemingly British uniform in a presumably French portrait?
- 📝 Who is Alexandra K. Trenfor? Is this quote accurate?
- 📝 Has the USA ever sanctioned Israel?
- 📝 What was the judicial body in 16th century France called?
- 📝 The Chronology Challenge: earliest verifiable date of a historical event?
- 📝 Was literacy ever used as a tool to oppress the population by higher social classes?
- 📝 Why did Odoacer choose to be king Instead of emperor?
- 📝 During the execution of the internment of Japanese during ww2 in the USA, did any other Asian Americans have to prove descent?
- 📝 Did foreign countries respond to the Munich Putsch?
- 📝 Why is there is a pan-slavic movement?
- 📝 Who are these people in this satirical cartoon of the Congress of Verona?
- 📝 What were the 52 kinds of victims persecuted by the Nazis?
- 📝 Why did former warfare so focused on capturing fortifications persist till modern times?
- 📝 What would the Arch of Titus have looked like painted?
- 📝 Does Winckler's explanation of Semitic migrations have any merit?
- 📝 Did Magellan's log show a lost day?
- 📝 Why were Muslims in Western Thrace and Christians in Constantinople excluded from the population exchange?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How accurate and balanced is Paul Johnson's 'A History of the Jews'?
- 📝 How accurate and detailed were geographical maps created and updated by the Romans?
- 📝 How do the kings and important figures in history get the titles?
- 📝 How historically accurate are the subplots about poison gas and false flag assassinations in Babylon Berlin?
- 📝 How accurate was rocket artillery in the 18th and 19th centuries?
- 📝 How accurate is Belloc's version of European economic history in The Servile State, with regards to the seizing of the monastic lands?
- 📝 How reliable and accurate is the Nuremberg Chronicle?
- 📝 How do historians and linguists know how to pronounce the names from non-phonetic scripts?
- 📝 How accurate or supported is Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel"?
- 📝 How and when did the word "nuclear" replace the word "atomic"?
- 📝 How did the USSR manage to innovate in an environment characterized by government censorship and high bureaucracy?
- 📝 When and how did the USA and the UK become allies?
- 📝 How and when was the modern company ownership structure invented?
- 📝 How were the cities of Milan and Bruges spared by the Black Death?
- 📝 How did the ruling class in the Muslim world react to the discovery and colonization of the Americas?
- 📝 How to explain the apparent discrepancy in the use of papyrus vs. clay tablets between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?
- 📝 How true is the statement "Soviet troops got into Berlin riding American trucks, walking in American boots and using American trains"?
- 📝 How many lives were estimated to have been saved by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs?
- 📝 How and why was the boundary between West and East Berlin decided to be where it was?
- 📝 When and how did the Han ethnic group become by far the biggest ethnic group in China?
- 📝 How was the modern geographic boundary between Europe and Asia decided?
- 📝 Is black American history only about segregation, slavery, and the 3 people you get taught about in school?
- 📝 How long did it take for a diplomat to travel between Berlin and Vienna in the 1770's?
- 📝 How to identify this coin with a bust on one side and the letters S and C on the other side?
- 📝 How expensive were castles? And how were the costs distributed?
- 📝 How do Friedman and Bernanke's explanations about the causes of the Great Depression compare?
- 📝 How compare the rights and conditions of the American slaves to those of Russian serfs?
- 📝 Were bookshops 'common' in the late 19th century, and how did they differ from modern ones?
- 📝 How common was marriage between nobles and peasants in the Middle Ages?
- 📝 How did Aztec armor and weaponry match up to the Spaniards?