Best-selling analysis of Jewish history by a leading Israeli historian with a new preface

A historical tour de force, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a groundbreaking account of Jewish and Israeli history. Exploding the myth that there was a forced Jewish exile in the first century at the hands of the Romans, Israeli historian Shlomo Sand argues that most modern Jews descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered across the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

In this iconoclastic work, which spent nineteen weeks on the Israeli bestseller list and won the coveted Aujourd'hui Award in France, Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel's future.

"Extravagantly denounced and praised." - New York Times

"Perhaps books combining passion and erudition don't change political situations, but if they did, this one would count as a landmark." - Observer

"[Sand's] quiet earthquake of a book is shaking historical faith in the link between Judaism and Israel." - Observer

"No discussion of the region any longer seems complete without acknowledgement of this book." - Independent on Sunday

"A radical dismantling of a national myth." - Guardian