A colorful figure of 18th-century America; Israel Putnam (1718-1790) played a key role in both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. In 1758 he barely escaped from being burned alive by Mohawk warriors. He later commanded a force of 500 men who were shipwrecked off the coast of Cuba. It was he who reportedly gave the command "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Detailing Putnam's close relationships with Aaron Burr; Alexander Hamilton; and John and Abigail Adams; this first full-length biography of Putnam in more than a century re-examines the life of a revolutionary whose seniority in the Continental Army was second only to that of George Washington.
#381992 in Books Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 2014-10-14 2014-10-14Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 241.05 x 1.10 x 6.49l; 1.58 #File Name: 1472905946256 pagesBloomsbury Publishing PLC
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. interesting history of the Talmud; but with too many digressionsBy jsaThis "biography" of the Talmud is an interesting overview of complex history that has many things going for it; but also suffers from a number of minuses. On the positive side; Dr. Freedman does an excellent job of tracing the evolution of the Babylonian Talmud from its origins as an accumulation of discussions among the rabbinic sages over several centuries; which were transmitted orally from one generation of scholars to the next; until its compilation; redaction and commitment to written form. Among the negatives; the author can't seem to decide whether his subject is a history of Judaism or of a series of books that were central to its development. While this is understandable; given the historical (and continuing) importance of the Talmud; the author still devotes too much space to extraneous material; much of which is quite subjective. To cite just one example; the saga of the false messiah Shabbtai Tzvi is recounted in detail; yet it has no relevance whatsoever to the story of the Talmud. On the other hand; there is some material on the Vilna Gaon; a towering figure who was the Lithuanian equivalent of one of the ancient Jewish sages; but the author; who is so wrapped up in recounting irrelevant anecdotes; doesn't communicate the full significance of the role of the Gaon and the world he lived in. In fact; the Vilna Gaon was the ultimate product of a culture where the study of the Talmud reigned supreme; where thousands upon thousands of young men attended hundreds of Yeshivas in Poland and Lithuania taught by some of the greatest minds of 18th and 19th century Judaism. This dimension of the story of the Talmud - its dominant role in the lives of Eastern European Jewry - is underemphasized.Separately; "The Talmud: A Biography" would have benefitted from a more attentive editor. There are; for example; numerous instances where sentences have an odd structure because they are either missing a conjunction or are simply two sentences written as one. One example will suffice: "His teacher Yehudai had tried something similar and had been rebuffed; the heirs to the Jerusalem Talmud were not going to be dictated to by those of the Babylonian version." (p. 70) In some cases; multiple sentences should have been formed into one unit: "There was a far more urgent battle looming. Against a Jewish sectarian group known as the Karaites. Who; like the Sadducees some centuries earlier; did not accept the Oral Law at all." (p. 71)Despite the intermittent lack of focus; I found "The Talmud" to be interesting and informative; and would recommend it as an introduction to the Talmud's formation and evolution. For a summary of the Talmud's content; I would recommend Solomon Schechter's "Aspects of Rabbinic Theology" and Abraham Cohen's "Everyman's Talmud."19 of 21 people found the following review helpful. It's a good overview of how the Talmud come to be and ...By StuartThis book contains no original material and is not written for the serious scholar but it combines a lot of material in one volume and to my knowledge; this has not been done before. It's a good overview of how the Talmud come to be and how it influenced the world from it's inception to the present day. There are many books about the Talmud but none that give you this wide an historical overview. It's very readable for the layman and I recommend it for anyone who wants to know what the Talmud is all about.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy James V. Zeitzgreat history of Rabbinic interpretation; as well as the whole history of the Mideast in the Middle Ages!
