BELONGING
THE STORY OF THE JEWS 1492–1900
SIMON SCHAMA Bodley Head, 800pp, £25, Oldie price £17.40 inc p&p
Schama’s first volume, covering two-and-a-half thousand years, ended with the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Iberia. This volume concludes with the Dreyfus Affair and the emergence of Zionism. ‘Jews have traditionally been caught in a double bind: not trusted as a distinct minority, and trusted even less when they attempt to adopt the majority culture/ religion,’ explained Andrew Anthony in the Observer. ‘It’s a position that has led to repeated cycles of persecution, expulsion, confinement and a ceaseless hankering to be accepted. That, in essence, is the story of the Jews and Schama lays it out in rich, complex and fascinating detail… Schama is not interested in history writ large. His signature method is to recount the plight of individuals against the swirling backdrop of events.’ He ‘maintains the attention with the vividness of his writing and his talent for unearthing gripping figures full of human contradictions’.
Daniel Johnson was unabashedly enthusiastic in his review for the
Times. ‘If Jewish history is an endless series of variations on the theme of exile and return, then Schama has made himself the leading virtuoso of our time. This second volume of this trilogy is an affirmation of faith in the grand narrative.’ Johnson called it a
‘glittering gemstone of a book’. For Roger Cohen, writing in the New
York Times, ‘Schama is a remarkable storyteller. His approach is cinematic. He sets scenes with great vividness and writes from street level, with an unflagging verve.’ And the Times Literary Supplement’s reviewer, Abigail Green, found it to be ‘so beautifully written it regularly takes your breath away… Daunted by its colossal size, I started reading with some trepidation; I finished filled with wonder and delight.’