One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 10 February 2011.
A triumphant history, a compelling narrative that flows seamlessly throughout. Montefiore marshals a huge cast of characters, chronicles the major events without forgetting the smaller, equally important details. An important book that presents the history of Jerusalem in all its religious, historical and political importance.
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March 2012 Non-Fiction Book of the Month.
The Lovereading view...
The epic story of Jerusalem told through the lives of the men and women who created, ruled and inhabited it. Drawing on new archives, current scholarship, his own family papers and a lifetime's study, Montefiore illuminates the essence of sanctity and mysticism, identity and empire in a unique story of the city that many believe will be the setting for the Apocalypse. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem: the only city that exists twice - in heaven and on earth.
| Primary Genre | Biographies & Autobiographies |
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Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today's clash of civilisations. From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and coexistence. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the 'centre of the world' and now the key to peace in the Middle East? In a gripping narrative, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city in its many incarnations, bringing every epoch and character blazingly to life. Jerusalem's biography is told through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the men and women - kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores - who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem. As well as the many ordinary Jerusalemites who have left their mark on the city, its cast varies from Solomon, Saladin and Suleiman the Magnificent to Cleopatra, Caligula and Churchill; from Abraham to Jesus and Muhammad; from the ancient world of Jezebel, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod and Nero to the modern times of the Kaiser, Disraeli, Mark Twain, Rasputin and Lawrence of Arabia.
Jerusalem : The Biography features in the following genres: Biographies & Autobiographies, Books of the Month, History, Non-Fiction Books of the Month, eBooks of the Month, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Recommendations, History and Archaeology
Jerusalem : The Biography is available in Paperback, Hardback
Jerusalem : The Biography was written by Simon Sebag Montefiore and published by Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) an imprint of Orion Publishing Co
Jerusalem : The Biography has 720 pages
