3 Review(s)

A landmark work of Jewish history and a worldwide phenomenon when it was first published, this masterpiece of Jewish history was translated in multiple languages and instantly become the de facto standard in the field. German academic HEINRICH GRAETZ (1817-1891) brings a sympathetic Jewish perspective to the story of his own people, offering readers today an affectionate, passionate history, not a detached, clinical one. Backed by impeccable scholarship and originally published in German across 11 volumes between 1853 and 1875, this six-volume English-language edition was abridged under the direction of the author, and brought to American readers by the Jewish Publication Society of America in 1891. It remains an important work of the study of the Jewish religion and people to this day. Volume V, subtitled From the Chmielnicki Persecution of the Jews in Poland (1648 C.E.) to the Period of Emancipation in Central Europe (c. 1870 C.E.), opens with an exploration of the condition of Jews in Poland before the persecution and the unique character of Polish Judaism, and continues through to a discussion of reform movements and the state of Judaism in the United States up to the time of the book's writing.