In this insightful book, Thomas Cahill, internationally-acclaimed historian and author of the runaway bestseller How the Irish Saved Civilization, reveals the changes in thinking that made Western civilization possible. A New York Times best-seller, The Gifts of the Jews is his accessible portrait of an ancient society and their vision that would later inspire the concept of individual worth. Until the third millennium, it was a widely-held belief...

A look at the formation of the American songbook-the timeless numbers that became jazz standards, iconic love songs, and sound tracks to famous movies-and explores the extraordinary fact that this songbook was written almost exclusively by Jews. -- Dust jacket.