In this magnificently illustrated cultural history—the tie-in to the PBS and BBC series The Story of the Jews—Simon Schama details the story of the Jewish experience, tracing it across three millennia, from their beginnings as an ancient tribal people to the opening of the New World in 1492 to the modern day.

It is a story like no other: an epic of endurance against destruction, of creativity in oppression, joy amidst grief, the affirmation of life against the steepest of odds.

It spans the millennia and the continents—from India to Andalusia and from the bazaars of Cairo to the streets of Oxford. It takes you to unimagined places: to a Jewish kingdom in the mountains of southern Arabia; a Syrian synagogue glowing with radiant wall paintings; the palm groves of the Jewish dead in the Roman catacombs. And its voices ring loud and clear, from the severities and ecstasies of the Bible writers to the love poems of wine bibbers in a garden in Muslim Spain.

In The Story of the Jews, the Talmud burns in the streets of Paris, massed gibbets hang over the streets of medieval London, a Majorcan illuminator redraws the world; candles are lit, chants are sung, mules are packed, ships loaded with spice and gems founder at sea.

And a great story unfolds. Not—as often imagined—of a culture apart, but of a Jewish world immersed in and imprinted by the peoples among whom they have dwelled, from the Egyptians to the Greeks, from the Arabs to the Christians.

Which makes the story of the Jews everyone's story, too.

西门·沙玛勋爵 Simon Schama，生于1945年，犹太裔英国人，英国著名历史学家、学术明星、哥伦比亚大学历史学教授、艺术史教授。他先后在剑桥大学、牛津大学、哈佛大学任教，自1993年至今在哥伦比亚大学历史系任教。他编写并主持过数十本畅销著作及纪录片。西门·沙马教 授的作品曾获众多奖项，包括：沃夫森历史奖、W.H.史密斯文学奖、全美书评人协会奖、艾美奖等重量及奖项。《犹太人的故事：寻找失落的字符（公元前1000年—公元1492年）》获得塞缪尔·约翰逊奖(Samuel Johnson Prize)，该奖项是英国针对非小说类图书设立的地位最高的一个奖项。

译者 黄福武，山东大学犹太教与跨宗教研究中心教授，山东大学出版社编审，《犹太研究》主编。黄教授的文章曾在《山东大学学报》《当代世、界社会主义问题》《文汇读书周报》《中华读书报》等发表。译作包括《犹太教审判》《简明犹太民族史》《犹太教：一种文明》《终止合法化贿赂》等。