"A tour de force. . . . A remarkable achievement." -- New York Times Book Review

"An absorbing, provocative, well-written, often moving book, an insightful and impassioned blend of history and myth, story and interpretation." -- Merle Rubin, Christian Science Monitor

"A marvelous book. . . . This is history: richly textured, provocative and wise." -- Plain Dealer

"Johnson has put together in one volume an extraordinary amount of useful information, and talks realistically about the Jews of the last four centuries, to which his devotes more than half of his book." -- New York Review of Books

"A powerful reminder of Jewish achievement throughout the ages." -- Martin Gilbert, Commentary

"Johnson brings to his subject a vitality that can't be matched in any of the professional one-volume histories. . . . His writing is dramatic without histrionics, graphic without being highly colored." -- John Gross, New York Times