As a teacher in secondary school I'm always looking for books that can help me teach my core classes in new and interesting ways. This book does a great job of taking a complex subject and turning into something you actually want to read plus help create new lesson plans!

As advertised, an exploration into the history of Judaism from the Second Temple Period until the modern day.

The author is very thorough; he begins with Josephus and works through what can be known about Second Temple Judaism, and does not spend much time attempting to ascertain what might have come before it. Over a third of the work is dedicated to this early story.

He then covers Roman and early medieval period, the late medieval period, the early modern era, and we are introduced to the modern era in terms of the movement toward Reform in Germany, and envisioning other modern "denominations" of Judaism as responses to it. Perhaps this understanding is provocative; I do not have the range of understanding of the history of the time to challenge it.

Overall the author does well at keeping to his lane and provides a lot of details. One can tell the author is British; more emphasis is given to Judaism in England than might otherwise be imagined, and one intrusion that is certainly noticeable is his denunciation of the idea that 2TP Jews saw themselves in a kind of exile. OK, he certainly is aware of N.T. Wright's premise, and sufficiently bothered to bring it up, yet never really makes any kind of significant and coherent argument against it beyond a few points which I would imagine Wright and others could easily brush away. Quite odd, really.

Nevertheless, if you're looking for a good primer for the history of Judaism across the Western and Middle Eastern world, this works well.

Superb synthesis of history of Jewish religion. Every intelligent person should be encouraged to learn how did Judaism put a foundation for the culture of the West. It silences critics, and demolishes myths. This book will greatly help all of those who are striving for better understanding of Jewish people. It will also facilitate knowledge of general European culture that has great influence on the formation of US culture.