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A History of the Jews in the Modern World
The distinguished historian of the Jewish people, Howard M. Sachar, gives us a comprehensive and enthralling chronicle of the achievements and traumas of the Jews over the last four hundred years.
Tracking their fate from Western Europe’s age of mercantilism in the seventeenth century to the post-Soviet and post-imperialist Islamic upheavals of the twenty-first century, Sachar applies his renowned narrative skill to the central role of the Jews in many of the most impressive achievements of modern whether in the rise of economic capitalism or of political socialism; in the discoveries of theoretical physics or applied medicine; in “higher” literary criticism or mass communication and popular entertainment.
As his account unfolds and moves from epoch to epoch, from continent to continent, from Europe to the Americas and the Middle East, Sachar evaluates communities that, until lately, have been underestimated in the perspective of Jewish and world history—among them, Jews of Sephardic provenance, of the Moslem regions, and of Africa. By the same token, Sachar applies a master’s hand in describing and deciphering the Jews’ unique exposure and functional usefulness to totalitarian movements—fascist, Nazi, and Stalinist. In the process, he shines an unsparing light on the often widely dissimilar behavior of separate European peoples, and on separate Jewish populations, during the Holocaust.
A distillation of the author’s lifetime of scholarly research and teaching experience, A History of the Jews in the Modern World provides a source of unsurpassed intellectual richness for university students and educated laypersons alike.
Tracking their fate from Western Europe’s age of mercantilism in the seventeenth century to the post-Soviet and post-imperialist Islamic upheavals of the twenty-first century, Sachar applies his renowned narrative skill to the central role of the Jews in many of the most impressive achievements of modern whether in the rise of economic capitalism or of political socialism; in the discoveries of theoretical physics or applied medicine; in “higher” literary criticism or mass communication and popular entertainment.
As his account unfolds and moves from epoch to epoch, from continent to continent, from Europe to the Americas and the Middle East, Sachar evaluates communities that, until lately, have been underestimated in the perspective of Jewish and world history—among them, Jews of Sephardic provenance, of the Moslem regions, and of Africa. By the same token, Sachar applies a master’s hand in describing and deciphering the Jews’ unique exposure and functional usefulness to totalitarian movements—fascist, Nazi, and Stalinist. In the process, he shines an unsparing light on the often widely dissimilar behavior of separate European peoples, and on separate Jewish populations, during the Holocaust.
A distillation of the author’s lifetime of scholarly research and teaching experience, A History of the Jews in the Modern World provides a source of unsurpassed intellectual richness for university students and educated laypersons alike.
848 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
Howard M. Sachar
26 books9 followersHoward Morley Sachar was an American historian. He was Professor Emeritus of History and International Affairs at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and the author of 16 books, as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals, on the subjects of Middle Eastern and Modern European history.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 10, 2019
This book is an anthology of different Jewish scholars. The pieces are drawn from the B. G. Rudolph Lectures in Judaic Studies, except for the one by Irving Greenberg. It is divided into four parts. They cover history, the Holocaust, literature, and theology.
The following are some comments I have on specific pieces of the text. Pages numbers are given in brackets [] from the New York University Press’ paperback edition of 1994.
[125] Irving Greenberg writes, “We know from an actual event in history—the Exodus.” Wrong song. To call the Exodus a historical event denies what most modern biblical scholars say. Which is it is a fictional story. Plus, logistically it is impossible.
[127] “Jews and Judaism do compromise with the realities in an unredeemed world, but a special level of ethics; behavior is demanded nevertheless—to meet, or at least strive to strive toward, the standards of Exodus.” This is Greenberg again, not realizing the horrendousnss of what god ask the Jews to do or did himself, starting from the plagues on the Egyptians, where so many innocent people were harmed or killed. Then, he order the slaughter of whole nations.
[128] He writes, “Faith is not pure abstraction, unaffected or unshaken by contradictory events; it is subject to ‘refutation.’” If faith is subject to refutation, why does he (or anyone) keep their faith, since it has been reliably refuted by the facts.
[129] Once again Greenberg is sprouting caustic religion, where he says, “Israel promises to walk the way of the Lord.” Walking in the way of the lord means stoning people.
[136] Once last time I quote what he has written: “To use Soloveitchik’s conceptual model, the covenant [between god and Israel] turned out to be a covenant of of being, not doing.” But, being is doing, and doing is being.
I am hard on Greenberg because he holds up religion as an admirable thing. Well, maybe you can extract some good things from the Bible, but it contains some of the worse doings of possibly any other book. Overall, it was a good read.
[229] Authur J. lelyveld writes, “Before we act, we are convinced intuitively that we are capable of making a choice.” Intuition is often wrong. Intuition is the outcome of sensing and feelings. Free will is a feeling, after sensing a choice has been made. It makes it possible to carry out a deliberate decision.
I feel that those who are interested in what modern Jews think of themselves and Judaism through history, the Holocaust, literature, and theology it would be a good read. Or if you are just interest in religions and different cultures. Do not bother if you cannot stand religion. But do not denigrate the Jews because of their religion even if it is based originally on fantasy before the sages started to comment on the Hebrew Bible, which did contain flights of fantasy as well as reasoned conclusions, which however remained opened to further commentary. This openness should actually be admired.
The following are some comments I have on specific pieces of the text. Pages numbers are given in brackets [] from the New York University Press’ paperback edition of 1994.
[125] Irving Greenberg writes, “We know from an actual event in history—the Exodus.” Wrong song. To call the Exodus a historical event denies what most modern biblical scholars say. Which is it is a fictional story. Plus, logistically it is impossible.
[127] “Jews and Judaism do compromise with the realities in an unredeemed world, but a special level of ethics; behavior is demanded nevertheless—to meet, or at least strive to strive toward, the standards of Exodus.” This is Greenberg again, not realizing the horrendousnss of what god ask the Jews to do or did himself, starting from the plagues on the Egyptians, where so many innocent people were harmed or killed. Then, he order the slaughter of whole nations.
[128] He writes, “Faith is not pure abstraction, unaffected or unshaken by contradictory events; it is subject to ‘refutation.’” If faith is subject to refutation, why does he (or anyone) keep their faith, since it has been reliably refuted by the facts.
[129] Once again Greenberg is sprouting caustic religion, where he says, “Israel promises to walk the way of the Lord.” Walking in the way of the lord means stoning people.
[136] Once last time I quote what he has written: “To use Soloveitchik’s conceptual model, the covenant [between god and Israel] turned out to be a covenant of of being, not doing.” But, being is doing, and doing is being.
I am hard on Greenberg because he holds up religion as an admirable thing. Well, maybe you can extract some good things from the Bible, but it contains some of the worse doings of possibly any other book. Overall, it was a good read.
[229] Authur J. lelyveld writes, “Before we act, we are convinced intuitively that we are capable of making a choice.” Intuition is often wrong. Intuition is the outcome of sensing and feelings. Free will is a feeling, after sensing a choice has been made. It makes it possible to carry out a deliberate decision.
I feel that those who are interested in what modern Jews think of themselves and Judaism through history, the Holocaust, literature, and theology it would be a good read. Or if you are just interest in religions and different cultures. Do not bother if you cannot stand religion. But do not denigrate the Jews because of their religion even if it is based originally on fantasy before the sages started to comment on the Hebrew Bible, which did contain flights of fantasy as well as reasoned conclusions, which however remained opened to further commentary. This openness should actually be admired.
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March 16, 2015SO WHAT BOOKS SHOULD I READ IF I WANT TO KNOW MOAR ABOUT JEWISH HISTORY, BOTH IN ISRAEL AND IN EUROPE, AFTER THE HOLOCAUST?
I LIKED THE COURSE OF MODERN JEWISH HISTORY BY SACHAR, ALTHOUGH OF COURSE FOR SOMETHING SO LARGE IT DOES SKIMP IN CERTAIN AREAS.
HE ALSO WROTE A FOLLOW-UP BOOK CALLED A HISTORY OF JEWS IN THE MODERN WORLD.
I LIKED THE COURSE OF MODERN JEWISH HISTORY BY SACHAR, ALTHOUGH OF COURSE FOR SOMETHING SO LARGE IT DOES SKIMP IN CERTAIN AREAS.
HE ALSO WROTE A FOLLOW-UP BOOK CALLED A HISTORY OF JEWS IN THE MODERN WORLD.
December 16, 2022
Howard Sachar put in a huge effort, only surpassed by his encyclopedic History of Israel. The narrative is lively and comprehensive, but it starts to come apart as it moves into contemporary times, providing a collection of snapshots of the various diasporic communities throughout the world which will rapidly become dated. The book is Ashkenazic-centric and anyone looking for how Judaism as a religion (as opposed to Jews as a people) adapted to events will be disappointed. Still a treasure trove of information relayed in an accessible style that shouldn't be missed.
December 18, 2025
A good introduction to Jews in the modern world.
June 15, 2016
I really had no clue as to the extreme persecution that the Jewish people have undergone for thousands of years, and the achievements they've produced in spite of it. This is a very timely book as anti-semitism is on the rise throughout the world, and understanding what happened to the Jews in the past is an important window to understanding what's happening now.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews