The Story of the Jews

As the son of a Jew who was both godless and without much interest in history, I learned things. But really, there are not nearly enough episodes to do anything like justice to a very long and eventful history, and the degree to which Schama allows himself to monologue, while he does sometimes tell stories in a well-chosen and affecting way, comes at a cost, particularly in the last episode on modern Israel, where he talks about Israelis as scurrying about underneath walls and lacking courage.