Michael Brenner is the Seymour and Lilian Abensohn Chair in Israel Studies and director of the Center for Israel Studies at American University and Professor of Jewish History and Culture at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. His many books include A Short History of the Jews (Princeton).
A timely and useful survey.---Jonathan Kirsch, Jewish Journal It is a rare history that compels the reader to think constantly about the present and even about the future. But that is what the historian Michael Brenner has accomplished in this meticulous journey through the labyrinth of yearning that has led to the modern State of Israel.---David K. Shipler, Moment Magazine Sophisticated in exposition, drawing on wide-ranging literary sources, among others, and judicious in its treatment of vexatious issues, Brenner's book demonstrates that Israel today is neither a Garden of Eden nor another Albania.---Bernard Wasserstein, Literary Review