The Promised Land or Disneyland?

[Saint Giles]

There is a four volume set, what is it called, oh, can't
recall, it's....I'll have to look. 

The is also The Cambridge History of Judaism. 

Hagith Sivan, Department of History, University of Kansas
posted a Review, BMCR, 

 

The Cambridge History of Judaism III. The early Roman
period, eds. William 
Horbury, W. D. Davies, John Sturdy. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 
1999. $140. ISBN 0-521-24377-7  

Here is a part of what Hagith Sivan wrote in that Review,
available On-Line someplace: 

But the main question is what is meant by 'Judaism'? Is the
history of 
Judaism synonymous with the history of the Jews? The volume
appears to 
suggest that this is not the case since, besides generous
space to the 
much, if not over-discussed 'philosophical' schools (the
Pharisees, the 
Sadducees and the Essenes) of the Second Temple era, there
is an article on 
the Samaritans (who certainly deserve inclusion in any
history of Judaism) 
and, several times in fact, on the Qumran sect (the
Essenes?). 
Furthermore, just who was a Jew in that period? This crucial
question is 
only briefly touched upon by the contributions. 


Also, Check out Joe Wood's  "What I Learned About Jews."
Wood is
the editor of "Malcolm X: In Our Own Image" (Anchor Books).
The essay can be found in Wood's "The Problem Negro and
Other Tales" in "Blacks and Jews: Thirty Years of Alliance
and Argument," an  anthology of essays. 
It's mostly anecdotal, but I think you might like it. 

Also of interest, though again, anecdotal, perhaps to a
fault,  *How Jews Became White* by Karen Brodkin, 1999.