Both a beautifully produced architectural history and an original academic study, Jewish Country Houses traces the history of 14 chronologically ordered case studies of country estates, stretching from Jewish emancipation (Salomons Estate) to the Holocaust (Trent Park) and including such notable houses as the Rothschilds' mansions at Waddesdon Manor and Mentmore and Disraeli's country estate Hughenden. Each study is a very specific story about a family and a place - homes, but rarely principal residences, they had both private and public aesthetic choices. Individually, these buildings and their stories are fascinating. Collectively, they reveal a hidden thread running through the history of modern Europe. A series of image-led inset pieces with a more thematic focus illuminate the bigger picture.