FOREVER OUTSIDERS: Jews and History from Ancient Times to August 1935

An interesting foreword launches this first volume--summarizing 4,000 years of Jewish history--in the Holocaust series. Altman introduces Judaism as the world's oldest surviving religion, presents Abraham as the first monotheist, questions Christian monotheism, and includes a brief summary of Jewish persecutions through the ages. Black-and-white reproductions, cartoons, and etchings often depict images of hate and intolerance; back matter includes chronologies to help readers gain a context for the material, and suggested readings for further study. That's fortunate, for the scope of the series, discussed in the preface, is broad; this first volume--an ambitious undertaking that falls prey to oversimplification--does not stand alone, but will require supplementary texts to give readers a real overview of history.