A History of the Jews

By: Paul Johnson

Narrated by: Nadia May

Length: 28 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

This historical magnum opus covers 4,000 years of the extraordinary history of the Jews as a people, a culture, and a nation. It shows the impact of Jewish character on the world - their genius, imagination, and, most of all, their ability to persevere despite severe persecutions. Compelling insights into events and individuals are chronologically detailed, from Moses and Jesus to Spinoza, Marx, Freud, the Rothschilds, and Golda Meir.

©1987 Paul Johnson (P)1989 Blackstone Audio, inc.

Critic reviews

"It's no mean feat to successfully compress 4,000 years of history into 645 pages, but Johnson has more than met the challenge....an excellent, nonscholarly history for general readers." ( Library Journal)
"A tour de force....A remarkable achievement." ( The New York Times Book Review)
"A marvelous book....This is history: richly textured, provocative and wise." ( The Plain Dealer)

Comprehensive History of the Jews

Wow, the is some work!! Covering the incredible history of the most interesting peoples of the last 4,000 years. Their contributions to humanity are astounding and the prejudice against them absolutely heart breaking. The audio book is long but well researched and documented. I wish everyone could read this book.

what a journey

The narrative of this book started thousands of years ago and ends in the 1980s. I learned a lot and it's an interesting listen in 2018 in light of developments over the past thirty years such as the collapse of the USSR (and Eastern Central Europe's economic and political transitions), dramatic escalations is violence between Israel and Palestine, Muslim-phobia, 'terrorism', etc. Listened at bed time. Nadia May is such a nice reader for a bedtime story.

The shear amount of information organized for easy understanding is remarkable

Initially I thought a man reader would have been better, but toward the end, I wasn't sure.
Well done! Paul Johnson did a tremendous job!

Enjoyable

I have enjoyed this book quite a bit, the narrative is clear and lucid, and so the reader or the listener can understand the situation and the social and political dynamics of the Jewish people. I basically give up on remember the Jewish names, I'll have look look up on wiki a bit later, but otherwise, the history is good and fluent.

favorite book of all time

even better on the second read, or to be more precise, listen. highly recommend this book. the audio version is particularly enjoyable due in part to the great performance of the reader

grear book middlubg reading

the reader has wonderful diction and an expressive voice but reading marred by nbelievable mispronnunciations

Great Story Difficult Narration

This was a great story. I find all of Paul Johnson's work very well done. Unfortunately, I could not listen to this thru the stereo system in my truck as it was difficult to understand the narration. I was forced to listen thru my LG BT headset which I prefer not to do. I believe it had something to do with the recording. That was disappointing.

Dry: too many distractions and possible bias

I found the narrator's voice difficult to listen to, but suspect this is a subtle flaw in technology, since I have enjoyed others narrated by her.
The constant and frequent reference to Jesus as "Christ" makes it difficult to believe that the entire book is not biased toward a Christian viewpoint in ways that I, well educated but not a historian, cannot fully evaluate. Since Jews do not believe he was the Messiah, and so would not use that title, it is distracting as well.
The book covers a lot of ground that could be fascinating, but the writing is very dry.

Constant Mispronunciation

The reader’s complete disregard for the pronunciation of Hebrew words and Jewish/Hebrew names takes away from the reading constantly.

History of The Jews

Best listened to on 1st go without attempting to chronicle the story. Wow, so dense in reference. Rather "hear" the story. I'm thinking after a respite, I'll re-listen. And/or get a hard copy. 👍