An absolute godsend ... Goodman has done both Jews and nonJews a great service with this book encapsulating most of Jewish thought over four millennia into one extraordinarily readable volume Julia Neuberger Literary ReviewA panoramic history of Judaism from its origins to the presentJudaism is by some distance the oldest of the three Abrahamic religions. Despite the extraordinarily diverse forms it has taken the Jewish people have believed themselves bound to God by the same covenant for more than three thousand years. This book explains how Judaism came to be and how it has developed from one age to the next as well as the ways in which its varieties have related to each other.A onevolume tour de force. Goodman meets the substantial challenge of charting the twists and turns tributaries and backwaters of Judaisms many streams over 2000 years and succeeds Harry Freedman Jewish ChronicleLearned and illuminating ... this magnificently lucid account will become the standard reference for a generation Dominic Green Wall Street Journal