Belonging

This is the incredible conclusion to Schama's can't miss duology covering the arc of Jewish history, here getting us right to the dawn of Zionism. Schama doesn't try to pack in literally all of Jewish history during this period, but rather follows the highlights in a leisurely journey around the major events/people that impacted different Jewish communities around the world. A lot of this is centered in Western Europe, and while there is a surprisingly brief chapter on Eastern European Jews and others on the wider diaspora that's certainly not the focus. This history is also very focused on individuals, only occasionally pulling back to look at broader trends, but the sheer volume of detail, the meticulous narrative, and the macro perspective that is there makes this an essentially entry in the Jewish history canon. Highly recommend