Sacher has previously written on such subjects as Zionism, the Jews in Europe between the wars and Jews in the Diaspora. Now he applies his wonderful talents as a historian and writer to the Jewish experience in modern times from the 17th century to today. He examines European anti-semtism and the rise of nationalism alongside the enlightenment and the new rights for Jews. Also looked at is the situation of Jews in Muslim lands and elsewhere, subjects usually given short shrift in books of this kind. Finally we are given excellent portraits of Jewish migration to the Americans and within Europe. Most are not aware that in 1930 many of the Jews in Germany and France were recent arrivals from the east, Jews from the Shtetl of Russia and Ukraine escaping persecution, dire poverty and revolution. These Jews contrasted greatly with the `liberated' and `assimilated' Jews of Germany who had created the reform movement. Important Jewish personalities like the Rothschilds are interwoven along with fascinating stories about Jews in Latin America and elsewhere.

This is a tour de force, as always well written and researched and easily readable.

Seth J. Frantzman