Thomas Cahill, author of the bestselling How the
Irish Saved Civilization, continues his
Hinges of History series with The Gifts of the Jews, a
light-handed, popular account of ancient Jewish culture, the
culture of the Bible. The book is written from a decidedly modern
point of view. Cahill notes, for instance, that Abraham moved the
Jews from Ur to the land of Canaan ＂to improve their prospects,＂
and that the leering inhabitants of Sodom surrounded Lot''s lodging
＂like the ghouls in Nig
內容簡介：
The author of the runaway bestseller How the Irish Saved
Civilization has done it again. In The Gifts of the Jews Thomas
Cahill takes us on another enchanting journey into history, once
again recreating a time when the actions of a small band of people
had repercussions that are still felt today.
The Gifts of the Jews reveals the critical change that made
western civilization possible. Within the matrix of ancient
religions and philosophies, life was seen as part of an endless
cycle of birth and death; time was like a wheel, spinning
ceaselessly. Yet somehow, the ancient Jews began to see time
differently. For them, time had a beginning and an end; it was a
narrative, whose triumphant conclusion would come in the future.
From this insight came a new conception of men and women as
individuals with unique destinies--a conception that would inform
the Declaration of Independence--and our hopeful belief in progress
and the sense that tomorrow can be better than today. As Thomas
Cahill narrates this momentous shift, he also explains the real
significance of such Biblical figures as Abraham and Sarah, Moses
and the Pharaoh, Joshua, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.
Full of compelling stories, insights and humor, The Gifts of the
Jews is an irresistible exploration of history as fascinating and
fun as How the Irish Saved Civilization.
關於作者：
xTHOMAS CAHILL is the author of the best-selling books, How
the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland ''s Heroic
Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe, The
Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way
Everyone Thinks and Feels, and Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The
World Before and After Jesus. These books comprise the first
three volumes of a prospective seven-volume series entitled "The
Hinges of History," in which Cahill recounts formative moments in
Western civilization. In "The Hinges of History," Thomas Cahill
endeavors to retell the story of the Western World through
little-known stories of the great gift-givers, people who
contributed immensely to Western, culture and the evolution of
Western sensibility, thus revealing how we have become the people
we are and why we think and feel the way we do today.
Thomas Cahill is best known, in his books and lectures, for
taking on a broad scope of complex history and distilling it into
accessible, instructive, and entertaining narrative. His lively,
engaging writing animates cultures that existed up to five
millennia ago, revealing the lives of his principal characters with
refreshing insight and joy. He writes history, not in its usual
terms of war and catastrophe, but as "narratives of grace, the
recountings of those blessed and inexplicable moments when someone
did something for someone else, saved a life, bestowed a gift, gave
something beyond what was required by circumstance." Unlike all too
many history lessons, a Thomas Cahill history book or speech is
impossible to forget.
He has taught at Queens College, Fordham University and Seton
Hall University, served as the North American education
correspondent for the Times of London, and was for many years a
regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Prior to
retiring recently to write full-time, he was director of religious
publishing at Doubleday for six years. He and his wife, Susan, also
an author, founded the now legendary Cahill Company
Catalogue, much beloved by readers. They divide their time between
New York and Rome.
From the Hardcover edition.
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