Beryl Ratzer

Trying to write a historical overview of anything covering prehistory to the present is daunting, to be certain. To create such a history of an area of the world like the 'Holy Land,' central as it has been to so much of human history, and the core of development for three of the largest religions, and to do so in under 200 heavily illustrated pages? May perhaps be sufficiently daunting as to make it an unwise project.

I was most surprised to note that the same number of pages (30, from show more 125-155) are taken up with the history of Israel from 1917 to the present (with fully 18 devoted to the State of Israel after WWII) as are given to the entire period from the beginning of Islam around 633 to 1917 (pp. 89-124). This timeframe reflects a period which includes not only the rise and spread of the first Islamic empires, but also the Crusades, the Mameluke era, and the entire Ottoman Empire. Such an imbalance suggests the author is rushing through the earlier periods because he cannot avoid them, rather than giving them care and attention equal to that given to the modern State of Israel.

The level of detail in some of the earlier sections seems to be very much in keeping with this impression. The details of, for example, the Constantinian era are scanty at best. And the section dealing with the Crusades (an area in which I have some small expertise) are outright inaccurate, based on shallow and outdated ideas which have long been superseded. Having diagnosed such flaws in the sections about which I do have broad knowledge, even though I cannot speak with similar authority on the sections on the ancient periods or those after the Crusades, I am afraid I have little confidence in the accuracy of any of the work.

In her introduction, the author attributes the varying length of different chapters to the "varied amounts of written sources for each period and to the fact that, while sometimes this area was a major player on the stage of history, at others it was desolate and unimportant—not even a minor role!" Again, I have less thorough knowledge of certain periods myself, but I cannot take seriously the claim that the entirety of the seventh through nineteenth centuries have neither enough source material nor historical significance to be covered in the same depth as the modern era, nor with appropriate accuracy.

The history of this region is intensely complicated, and in every era, terrifically important to the development of culture throughout the world. While I find this work to be a noble effort, and something I would love to see done well, this example seems to have fallen well short of its goals. show less

After some reflection, I finally concluded that this book is intended for the armchair traveller. The author is a tour guide, and the book reads as though she has simply written down the speeches she gives in her tours. While I found it interesting, I'm not sure to whom I would recommend it. It's clearly well-researched, and seems to be historically accurate, but is too oversimplified for anyone wishing to learn much about the history of the Holy Land beyond what is already in the Bible. My show more first inclination was to lend it to homeschooling friends, but I'm afraid they would be turned off by the unchristian treatment of the Bible as a purely historical document. Conversely, a non-religious person might not be very interested in reading so much about the Bible. The niche market of "armchair traveller" seems to me to be a rather small one, and I think the author would succeed better if she expanded upon her topic, and if she approached it from a religious perspective. show less

This is a very shortened and condensed history of Israel from pre-historic times to the present. With only 160 pages, including a 2 page bibliography and 3 page index, and being heavily illustrated, this is more or less a tourist's history of the country. The title of the book leads one to believe that the book would be more or less a showcase of places commonly visited by tourists to the country with text outlining the significance of each location. Instead, it is a history with photos to show more illustrate the history. This is a case where my expectations of the content of the book differed from the actual content. The author does a respectable job of condensing the history of one of the world's oldest geographic regions into such a few pages, but persons wanting to know more about the places they will visit on a trip to Israel or wanting a more in-depth look at the country's history need to look elsewhere. This book was received through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program with the expectation that a review would be written. show less

This is a tourist’s history of Israel, with wonderful pictures, great maps, and a non-analytical overview of the highlights of the history of the area. The layout of the book is reminiscent of one of the “Rough Guides” with lots of boxes and sidebars to supplement the main text. Twelve chapters divide the book by periods of time, starting with "Prehistory to Middle Bronze Age" and ending up with "State of Israel."

I don’t believe this is meant to be a substitute for an show more academic-quality history, but if I were traveling to Israel I would love to have this book with me for a quick reference to what happened where and when. show less