Believers won’t much like this new look at the Bible through an archaeological lens, and scholars won’t find anything new,...
A highly readable introduction to ancient archaeology and what it can teach us about the Bible.
What do the digs of the last three decades tell us about the Old Testament? In short, they tell us that most of the Hebrew Bible is bunk. The patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (along, presumably, with their matriarchal wives, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah)—never existed. There’s no real evidence for the Exodus from Egypt, either. The evidence for the battle Joshua heroically fought with Jericho is “weak.” Digs in Jerusalem haven’t produced any evidence of a glorious reign of David. But archaeology does more than destruct biblical stories—it also offers new hypotheses. Just who were the Israelites if not the literal descendants of a literal guy named Abraham? Clues to their origins lay, the authors claim, in their earliest settlements, which have been excavated. The site of Izbet Sartah, for example, is laid out in an oval, indicating that the dwellers were pastoral. All this archaeological evidence, say Finkelstein (Archaeology/Tel Aviv Univ.) and Silberman (The Hidden Scrolls, 1994), adds up to a major revision of the literary history of the Bible. We can no longer believe that the so-called Book of J was written around the tenth century
Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2001
ISBN: 0-684-86912-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
A useful book for those wishing a cram course about one of the 19th century's most prolific composers and his times. Vienna's moniker as the City of Music may suggest a place of flowers and waltzes, but such was not the case at all at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, when composer Franz Schubert lived his 31 short years there. Marked first by war and then by a peacetime filled with repression and censorship, Vienna was a city where often the safest place to be was inside. This book methodically details life in Schubert's Vienna. Unlike his musical contemporary Beethoven, who moved in higher social circles, Schubert lived a decidedly middle-class life. It is this social stratum that this volume, edited by Erickson (dean of Arts and Humanities at Queens College, City Univ. of New York), chronicles in meticulous depth. The collection has chapters written by various scholars from around the world on everything from the politics of the times to other popular art forms, such as Viennese theater and Biedermeier painting. The book follows a logical order, beginning with an overview and analysis of the era's repressive politics. Establishing that aura of fear and reign of censorship sets the scene for discussion of their impact on Viennese culture—the retreat to the safety of home, for instance, where music became a vital recreation in the salons—and its art forms. Music was among the safest of the arts, because, given its abstractness, it was almost impossible to prove that a composer had nefarious political thoughts as he wrote a particular piece. Scholarly writing whose readability varies depending on the contributor but overall an asset to the library of anyone interested in music or Vienna. (140 b&w and 20 color illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-300-07080-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1997
Hoge and Zakaria, respectively editor and managing editor of Foreign Affairs, have collected 43 articles to commemorate the journal's 75 years of publication. Perhaps the most interesting characteristic of this volume is not its overview of a changing world during a turbulent century, but rather the subtle indications of a changing perception of that world. Many of the names and topics are expected: Kennan on containment of the Soviets; Kissinger on diplomacy; Morgenthau on foreign intervention; Brzezinski on the Cold War. But there are also surprises, especially during the earlier decades: renegade Marxist Kautsky on Germany after WW I; Italian philosopher Croce on liberty in the 1930s; Soviet theorist Bukharin on imperialism; and anthropologist Mead on what later came to be known as North-South relations. Together the selections constitute a short intellectual history of foreign-policy concerns. Despite the often gloomy realities, the early contributions are characterized by a belief that ideas matter and that a wide range of them are worth considering. The postWW II period is dominated by a narrower discourse of national interest within shared assumptions about a bipolar world. After the demise of the Soviet Union, the articles share a sense of discovery that the world is a much more complex place than could ever have been imagined during the Cold War. This evolution in the mindset dominating the pages of Foreign Affairs reflects both the journal's failure and its success. Its goal, announced in the lead article of the first issue, was to educate the broad public about foreign events and issues. It has remained, however, largely a forum for the intelligentsia. The evidence that the experts have learned a lot over the years, however, suggests that the journal nevertheless deserves its reputation as the place for serious discussions of foreign policy. Well worth reading. (16 pages photos) (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-465-00170-X
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1997
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