Jerusalem

This is the go-to history of Jerusalem, an easy read that makes the city’s vast past digestible. It won’t leave you feeling overwhelmed with dates and names.

This is a fine effort to tell a complicated story in a single volume, with the caveat that it lends more weight to the Jewish and Christian points of view, and less to Arab and Muslim perspectives. 

Jerusalem has been the most important city in world history because it is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

It has been fought over, conquered, destroyed, and occupied countless times over the millennia, and Simon Sebag Montefiore's book attempts to cover this entire historical tapestry, from Jerusalem's earliest times up to the late twentieth century.

He delves into the biblical period, the city's destructions, the Crusades, the Ottoman era, the British mandate, and much more. It is an immense task to try to encompass all the key developments in the city, but this book achieves it as well as possible.… show more.

For those curious about whether there is a God (or not), a good place to sit and think about it is Jerusalem, which three major religions consider to it be a very sacred place: Jews, Christians, and Muslims (plus the Armenians, for added value). A place with an extraordinary history of conquest and religious fervour.