This book is about the principal writings that shaped the perception of Turkey for informed readers in English, from Edward Gibbon's positing of imperial Decline and Fall to the proclamation of the Turkish Republic (1923), illustrating how Turkey has always been a part of the modern British and European experience. It is a great sweep of a story: from Gibbon as standard textbook, through Lord Bryon the pro-Turkish poet, and Benjamin Disraeli the Romantic novelist of all things Eastern, followed by John Buchan's Greenmantle First World War espionage fantasies, and then Manchester Guardian reporter Arnold Toynbee narrating the fight for Turkish independence.

Sadly Mr. David S. Katz has passed away December 12th 2013 at 5am EST at the age of 98 (he would have been 99 years old 6 weeks later). Upon his retirement from his accounting practice in 1990, David S. Katz suddenly discovered that he had a talent for art. In the last 32 years, he has made many drawings, paintings, stone sculptures, stained glass, rug hooking, clay modeling and have had some pieces bronze-casted in a foundry. David was persuaded to try his hand at writing children's stories. To his surprise, he did so and produced some 28 stories which will now be published in a trilogy. Fifty percent of sales will be donated to: The Mildred & David S. Katz Foundation The Jewish Public Library Magen David-Adom

Sadly Mr. David S. Katz has passed away December 12th 2013 at 5am EST at the age of 98 (he would have been 99 years old 6 weeks later). Accountant, artist and now, published writer Talk about living life to the fullest; exploring new fields; finding one's bliss - all of thed above apply to David Katz. The octogenarian -world traveller/painter/sculptor/illustrator and, of late, writer - is just getting started. Since his retirement 32 years ago, David has been indulging and pursuing his creative side. His home is a virtual study in multi media - from paintings to sculpture. In the last 32 years, he has made many drawings, paintings, stone sculptures, stained glass, rug hooking, clay modeling and have had some pieces bronze-casted in a foundry. His latest form of expression: writing children's stories. "I was drawing small people, and a woman friend of mine suggested that I use these drawings and write children's stories," says David. "I had never been a writer so I started with children's stories and did my own illustrations. In a short period of time I had written 28 entirely different stories." He not only surprised himself at how much he enjoyed the process; he discovered that others enjoyed the stories. Somebody offered to have them published, and the Cheery Book Club Trilogy was born. A chartered accountant by trade, David knows about estate and philanthropic planning. He created the Mildred and David S. Katz Foundation to honour the memory of his late wife with whom he shared over 60 years of marriage. Now he hopes that sales of his book will help support charities that he supports. 50% of sales will be donated to: The Mildred & David S. Katz Foundation, Jewish Public Library and Magen David-Adom. The Cheery Book Club Trilogy, Books 1 and 2, are also available.

Sadly Mr. David S. Katz has passed away December 12th 2013 at 5am EST at the age of 98 (he would have been 99 years old 6 weeks later). Upon his retirement from his accounting practice in 1990, David S. Katz suddenly discovered that he had a talent for art. In the last 32 years, he has made many drawings, paintings, stone sculptures, stained glass, rug hooking, clay modeling and have had some pieces bronze-casted in a foundry. David was persuaded to try his hand at writing children's stories. To his surprise, he did so and produced some 28 stories which will now be published in a trilogy. Welcome to book 2. As with the first book 50% of sales will be donated to: The Mildred & David S. Katz Foundation The Jewish Public Library Magen David-Adom

This wide-ranging book is an intellectual history of how informed readers read their Bibles over the past four hundred years, from the first translations in the sixteenth century to the emergence of fundamentalism in the twentieth century. In an astonishing display of erudition, David Katz recreates the response of readers from different eras by examining the 'horizon of expectations' that provided the lens through which they read. In the Renaissance, says Katz, learned men rushed to apply the tools of textual analysis to the Testaments, fully confident that God's Word would open up and reveal shades of further truth. During the English Civil War, there was a symbiotic relationship between politics and religion, as the practical application of the biblical message was hammered out. Science - Newtonian and Darwinian, as well as the emerging disciplines of anthropology, archaeology and geology - also had great impact on how the Bible was received. The rise of the novel and the development of a concept of authorial copyright were other factors that alerted readers' experience.Katz discusses all of these and more, concluding with the growth of fundamentalism in America, which brought biblical interpretation back to the Lutheran certainty of a demonstrable authority. 'This is a wonderfully learned, very clever, artfully constructed and engagingly written book.' Peter Lake, Princeton University David S. Katz holds the Abraham Horodisch Chair for the History of Books at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of 'The Jews in the History of England, 1485-1850' and, with Richard H. Popkin, 'Messianic Revolution: Radical Religious Politics to the End of the Second Millennium'.

This book traces the Jewish thread throughout English life between the Tudors and the mass immigration in the mid-nineteenth century. For the first time, Jews are shown as an integral part of English religious and social history. This extensively researched and readable study will be essential reading for those interested in English and Jewish history alike.