The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Hinges of History) |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Hockey History > Item 8
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The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Hinges of History)
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by Thomas Cahill
Sales Rank: 17118
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List Price: $14.95
$10.17
At Amazon
on 10-18-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 304 pages
Published by: Anchor Books/Nan A Talese August 17, 1999
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0385482493
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0385482493
Book Dimensions:
7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
Weighs: 8 ounces
Product Review
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 Night of the Living Dead." The gifts of the Jews nonetheless encourages us to see the Old Testament through ancient eyes--to see its characters not as our contemporaries but as those of Gilgamesh and Amenhotep. Cahill also lingers on often-overlooked books of the Bible, such as Ruth, to discuss changes in ancient sensibility. The result is a fine, speculative, eminently readable work of history.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Cahill argues that the greatest gifts of the Jews are the linear theory of history (vs. the cyclical theory of other ancients), with its implication that life can get better and avoid decline and the idea of the equality and dignity of each individual that culminated in the declaration that "All men are created equal." Other gifts include the concepts of universal brotherhood, peace, and justice. (LJ 3/15/97)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Reader Reviews
This was a fast and easy book to read. Cahill is a shrewd and entertaining writer. He makes a good living _as_a_writer._ If you are Jewish or devoutly Christian, you are the intended audience, and you will be pleased and even inspired. Unfortunately, within the book the author denigrates fundamentalist Christians and those who interpret the Bible literally--likely to be his strongest supporters. He even implies that Saint Paul was not really a Christian! Fun it may be, but as history, this work is a failure. It is not research in the generally accepted sense of the word. Cahill's theories are in the end nothing more than assertions; he does not even attempt to justify his interpretations of the body of literature he addresses herein. There are no corroborating citations of facts from multiple sources, nor anything but personal opinion offered. Among the sparse references are allusions to conversations with rabbis. He starts with a conviction and then proceeds to observation, which tends to shortchange the truth. Cahill throws out any claim to objectivity in the nearly-romantic foreword, in which he insists that anyone who disagrees with him is stupid, or "just plain evil"! Many, many intelligent, ethical people have found empirical evidence to support other views, to which I will return later. Cahill's central theme is that the concepts of both monotheism, and individual identity, were created by the ancient Jews. He demands this emphatically throughout the main body of the book. Then, in the appendices, he disclaims, stating that 1) Amenhotep IV (aka Akhenaten), who ruled Egypt shortly before the Jews' enslavement, imposed monotheism throughout the Empire, and that 2) of course no one can state unequivocally that monotheism and individual identity originated in one place and with one group. How then does he justify the ardor of his viewpoint?! I will say here that the appendices are much better-written than the chapters, a point to keep in mind when approaching Cahill's other books. If he ignores the constant reiteration by the author that "The Jews Are IT," and simply reads the book, the reader is going to get the definite impression that this book should have been titled "The Gifts of the Sumerians." The author makes a much stronger case for that non-Semitic people being the actual progenitors of Western Civilization, than he does for the Jews. Cahill notes that the Biblical Noah is predated in detail by the earlier Sumerian story of Utnapishtim, but he ignores the fact that the Moses-in-the-bullrushes story is similarly predated by the story of the Babylonian king, Sargon. Other large inconsistencies appear regularly. Some specific problems: 1. Nowhere in this book does Cahill discuss Greece. All persons who actively establish modern Western culture, including architects, civic planners, artists of every persuasion, scientists, and others, including most notably political theorists such as the Founding Fathers of America, specify Greek and Roman influences as their main sources. Philosophy as taught in every university in the West starts with Greece. viz. "The Federalist", Hamilton, Madison, Jay; "Elements", Euclid; "The Politics", Aristotle; "The Republic", Plato. 2. The theme of individualism is present in every myth, legend, and folktale to be found in the corpus of worldly literature--*especially* in the story of Gilgamesh, a fact astonishingly missed by Thomas Cahill. Gilgamesh is the original rebel against authority, but every story of every hero of ancient times is the story of the search for freedom from the restraints of the village and from the conventions of the pack. A society whose national hero was such a firebrand was hardly composed of numb automata. viz. "The Hero With A Thousand Faces", J. Campbell. 3. Egypt had been in existence for thousands of years, and most of the highest peaks and accomplishments of Egyptian civilization occurred, before the Jews came on the scene. The clear evidence in the historical record is that Egyptian culture was the dominant influence in every civilization that succeeded it in the Near East. The Egyptian records tell the story of a society with the organization capable of administering a vast empire, and capable of producing architectural miracles. The Jews never approached this level of culture. An interesting point is that Egyptian society was rather "progressive." Women and men were considered equal under the law. This was definitely not true among the Jews. To really appreciate the depth and breadth of Egyptian culture requires much reading. No single volume can address every aspect. viz. "Ancient Egypt", D. Silverman et al, and thousands of other books on Egyptology. 4. Other major civilizations coeval with the Hebrews, such as the Mitannians and Hittites, have left us too few documents to discern their full histories, but nevertheless exerted heavy influence on the peoples they conquered. No absolute claims of first sources can ever be made when the historical record is so incomplete. 5. Christianity, which has certainly been a tremendous influence on Western history, is based on the sayings of Christ, as reported by the Apostles, as interpreted and expanded by Paul, but also influenced by Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, Germanic culture, Byzantine politics, Milton's Paradise Lost, Dante's Inferno, etc., etc. It is utterly distinct from Judaism, the rejection of which was one of Christ's primary missions. Hebrew culture is incompatible with Christian European societies, so incompatible that the Jews have been under fire for their differences for thousands of years. Christ happened to be a Jew, but that is where the connection ends. viz. article on "Zoroastrianism," Encylopedia Britannica; "Sun Songs", R. Van Over et al.; any book about Emperor Constantine and Council of Nice; works mentioned above. In sum, an "A" for style, but an "F" for content.
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The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Hinges of History)
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Price: $10.17
Updated on 10-18-2008.
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