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The bestselling and controversial debunking of the myth of the Jewish nation, a bestseller in Israel and France and now available in PB in English. Demolishing the myths and taboos that have surrounded Jewish and Israeli history, Sand offers a startling new account: was there really a forced exile in the 1st century? Should the Jewish people be regarded as a distinct ethnic group, or are they descended from converts scattered across the Middle East and Eastern Europe?
Synopsis
Shows that the Israeli national myth has its origins in the 19th century, rather than in biblical times when Jewish historians, like scholars in many other cultures, reconstituted an imagined people in order to model a future nation. This book demonstrates the construction of a nationalist myth and the collective mystification that this requires.
