Customer Reviews

The Jews in the Twentieth Century: An Illustrated History

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This book has fabulous pictures, and also a good written history of the Jews in the twentieth century. My small objection to the book is after World War II, he mostly deals with Israel, with small mention of Jews in other countries and their contributions to society. I understand why, but as the book has until then done a good job of discussing Jews throughout various countries, it's focus seems to become rather narrow. And Jews in other countries are usually mentioned only in context of immigration to or support of Israel. As the author points out, the United States has a larger Jewish population than Israel does, and so it would seem a little more discussion of Jews in the U.S. and their contributions-most of the people he mentions are writers or entertainers, would be in order. But the photos do make up for any short-comings in the commentary..

this is a very poor presentation of jews in 20th. century, tipical primitive standard m. gilbert. if some big names in western europian and american history - by all means not all - are represented, especially in germany, england, usa, almost all relevant names of eastern europe are not. and eastern europe at least was as important as western and usa jewry.

This book is not carefully researched. In one reference, on page 102, he refers to Soviet President Yakov Sverdlov. He states his original name was "solomon" which is untrue, and was propaganda generated by Antisemitic literature. He also states that Yakov was 44 when he died. He was 33. He was my great-grandfather, so, I am intimately familliar with his history. I found it offensive and odious that this scholar claims to present misinformation in the guise of historical truth. I would therefore be extremely dubious of his other findings.