The Sacred Chain: A History of the Jews - Softcover

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Norman Cantor's extraordinary and highly controversial book focuses on the creation and perpetuation of a unique Jewish identity through three thousand years of dramatic, often catastrophic, change. Aimed squarely at the secular reader, it addresses itself vigorously to the defining moments of Jewish history – from the authenticity of the Old Testament stories and the position of Jews in medieval Spain to how and why Jews have played such a prominent role in every major Western intellectual movement, the mechanics of, and reactions of world Jewry to, the Holocaust, the formation of the state of Israel, the practicalities of a Middle Eastern peace and the central question of the future of the Jewish people.

I am not Jew but Jew-ish. Professor Cantor's history is written for people like me, and for general students of the same mysterious topic… this is a serious work which will introduce any literate reader to the fascinating way in which Jewry occupies a position midway between religion and philosophy, and between history and myth."
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, 'Mail on Sunday'

"Fierce and readable history… ['The Sacred Chain'] asks some painful questions of Jews in general, and of those who claim to be its leaders. Some of us undoubtedly rest accused."
JULIA NEUBERGER, 'Evening Standard'

"Courageous… 'The Sacred Chain' is valuable because Cantor knows a great deal… and has thought deeply about Jewish identity and its historical origins… Cantor sees the story as more patchy and inconsequential, much decorated by myths, ancient and modern, and the Jews as a less singular and far more ordinary people than their enemies or they themselves believe… as such 'The Sacred Chain' is a useful corrective… Cantor has insights which surprise, shock or even delight… All this makes for stimulating reading and there are very few pages of Cantor's long book which did not intrigue, enlighten or infuriate me."
PAUL JOHNSON, 'Sunday Telegraph'

"Professor Cantor has performed a valuable service… if we Jews do not learn to live with each other, and solve our problems by ourselves, we can certainly expect other peoples, and other forces, to solve our problems for us."
GEOFFRY ALDERMAN, 'Jewish Chronicle'

"Valuable and courageously heretical… Cantor savages both the Jewish tendency to sentimentalize historical traditions and the kindred need for simplifying religious response, with its side effects of spiritual and intellectual athropy."
JONATHAN KEATES, 'Observer'