Rise and decline of civilizations : lessons for the Jewish people / Shalom Salomon Wald ; foreword by Shimon Peres.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wald, Salomon.

Contributor:

Peres, Shimon, 1923-2016

Jewish People Policy Institute.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Judaism--History.

Judaism.

World history.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (452 p.)

Place of Publication:

Boston : Academic Studies Press, 2014.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Rise and Decline of Civilizations: Lessons for the Jewish People is a thought experiment in which the author examines the work of 23 historians of the last 2,400 years, from Thucydides to Jared Diamond, who describe the rise and decline of nations and civilizations. None of these is a historian of Judaism. The key question of the book is whether the reasons that explain the rise, decline, and fall of other civilizations could apply to the Jews as well. The answer of the author is a qualified yes. From the work of these historians he extracts 12 "drivers," or factors that explain rise and decline, from religion to natural catastrophes. Reviewing the Jewish history of more than 3,000 years against the background of these drivers opens fascinating new vistas for the general reader, and may be particularly useful to historians and politicians.

Contents:

part I. Questions of definition and methodology

part II. Historians on rise and decline

part III. Macro-historical conditions of rise, golden age, and decline

part IV. Drivers of rise and decline of civilizations : general observations and Jewish history

part V. Drivers of transformation : two case studies.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed February 25, 2014).

ISBN:

1-61811-277-5

OCLC:

872528286