Blurb:

It is hardly a coincidence that the discipline “the history of Israel” originated in Germany in the 19th century, in the centre of fast growing European nationalism. In this way it was German scholars who created the idea of a historical Israel not as much as a reflection over the past as a projection of their own national aspirations. In this way the wanderings of the tribes of Israel through the desert to the cultivated land could be compared to the wanderings of German tribes when Antiquity developed into the dark ages of Europe, and the conquest of Palestine by Israelite tribes could be compared to Germanic tribes assuming power in central and northern Europe.