Review: The Story of the Jews: a 4,000-Year Adventure
The Story of the Jews: A 4,000-Year Adventure
by Stan Mack
Stan Mack's ambitious little project, The Story of the Jews, aims to tell the entire history of the Jewish people in comic book form. He begins his story with Abraham and Sarah, and at first the ride seems familiar. I'm not Jewish, but I heard many of the stories about Moses parting the Red Sea and David defeating Goliath because they are also prominent in Christianity, and fully integrated into Western culture. But it quickly races past Old Testament stories and into Jewish life under feudalism and the rise of the Church's power. Jews weren't always treated as badly as they were during the Inquisition, and depending on where they were located they even did quite well. But the hardships they faced, and prejudices others had against them, were illustrated in an easy to understand format. For example, I knew Jews ended up in Poland because that's where the Nazis found them in the early 20th century, but I never knew why until I read this book. It's those little details, those blank spaces between Big Jewish Events (King David, Fall to Rome, Inquisition, Immigration to America, Ghettos in Europe, Holocaust, Israel Reborn, etc...sorry, I really am ignorant of Jewish culture, overall) that Mack's book does a fantastic job of filling in.
I would recommend The Story of the Jews to any reader. It is thorough and comprehensive, yet easy to digest because it's a comic book. Mack has a very fast 'n' loose, sketchy art style and doesn't really utilize panels, giving his pages a frenetic, energetic pace. The book is educational, but not boring. Huge bonus points if you're trying to teach this history to a bunch of squirmy li'l junior high students, so teachers, pick this one up.
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