My people : the story of the Jews / by Abba Eban.

The Age of the Patriarchs -- A Nation Is Born -- Israel in the Land -- The Fall of Israel and Judah – Prophecy -- Exile and Return -- The Hellenistic Period -- Under Roman Dominion -- The Rise of Christianity -- New Centers of Diaspora -- The Age of Islam -- The Jews in Europe to 1492 -- New Centers of Jewish Settlement -- Mysticism and Messianism -- The Dawn of Emancipation -- Anti-Semitism and Migrations -- Nationalism, Assimilation, Zionism -- World War I and the Balfour Declaration -- Palestine Between the Wars -- The Holocaust -- Israel Is Born -- American Jewry in the Twentieth Century -- The Jewish World Today

My people is a story-epic, splendid, and infinitely moving-of a small people unique from any other, whose history has had a profound influence on the entire human condition. The book relives the drama of Abraham-the time of the first covenant; the giving of the law of Moses; the Prophetic vision; the terrifying march of the Roman legions; the haunting shadows of exile; the brilliance of the Enlightenment; the unparalleled agony of Auschwitz; and the victorious renewal of a birthright. Many civilizations march across its pages: Canaanite, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, Christian, Arab, European, American, up to the founding of modern Israel, which stands in the center of the Jewish world today. Abba Eban tells this majestic story as a scholar, philosopher, and historian. MY PEOPLE reflects the vision, the fact, and the myth which comprise the life and thought of the Jewish people. You will share Abba Eban's insights into Jewish ideas and identity, and his eloquent reflections on the miracle of Israel's persistence from antiquity to modern times. It is the story of a people who believe that the future is as important as the past, and that there is a superior dimension which gives purpose and vitality to the human struggle. It is an unfinished story and a history that is still being made. MY PEOPLE is a brilliant, superbly written commentary on the totality of the Jewish experience. There has never been a book quite like this one. Nor a people.