by Peter Medawar
Oxford, 1982
351 pp. $25
By Julian Jaynes. Houghton, 1982.
467 pp. $9.95
By Martin J. Wiener. Canibridge, 1982.
217 pp. $7.95
's independence but almost never thereafter. A tie is re- ferred to even today as a dug ma'luach, a herring.
As in the shtetls, everyone seemed to know everyone else. To call a fellow Jew adon ("Mr.") was almost insulting. Much pre- ferred was haver ("comrade, friend"). Rather than a mere na- tion, the Yishuv seemed to be a large, self-centered Jewish town where doors were left unlocked and children played in the streets under every adult's protective gaze.
Most Jews belonged...
. The novelty of a Jewish state has long since worn off. The world has become accustomed to its existence, and the memory of the reasons for its creation is fading.
Theodor Herzl believed that a Jewish state would end the anomalous position of Jews in the world. The wonder and ela- tion that Jews once felt at seeing Jewish policemen, farmers, laborers, soldiers, pilots, porters, and waiters working in their own country have largely disappeared. In this respect, Israel has fulfilled Herzl's dream...
famine, but after many centuries they returned, taking the Promised Land force.
The saga of the Israelites from Ab-raham's era (c. 2000 B.c.) through the Exodus and Babylonian captivity to the successful revolt of the Mac- cabees against the Greek Seleucid rulers of Palestine in 168 B.C. is re- counted in The Pentateuch and Haf- torahs (Soncino, 1950; rev. ed., 1960), more commonly known as the Old Testament. To the surprise of some, much modern research vouches for the essential "historicity"...
Native American Indian tribes had their own histories, which they searched to explain the European's arrival, but history conceived as an inquiry starts in America with Western man's attempt to describe his first sight of the new continent, so strik- ing to him in his cultural isolation. The early Spanish reports spread the news of islands different from anything in Europe, luxuriant, extraordinarily rich in exotic animals, plants, and minerals. The simple life of the inhabitants recalled to Euro-...