Prince of fire / Daniel Silva

A collection of essays and insights from the hindsight of a renowned historian: "I was exceedingly fortunate to teach (for forty years) in an elite undergraduate college, where I could mentor intelligent young women who were eager to learn. But Wellesley, still a bastion of Christian privilege a century after its founding, continued to experience (and demurely tolerate) dismaying episodes of anti-Semitism. How ironic that Wellesley and Israel, each in its own distinctive way, had converged to liberate me from my past as a non-Jewish Jew. Regardless of the subject--law, modern American history, American Judaism, Israel--deference to the conventional wisdom never had been my style. I always enjoyed the stimulation of writing against the grain: discovering hidden meanings, challenging historical and political pieties, and exposing the self-serving ideology that often lurked beneath self-evident truths. Providing intellectual catnip, it also enabled me to reach readers far beyond the narrow confines of academic journals. My creative work always was done in the solitude of my study, my sanctum within my home. Enclosed within the treasured artifacts, maps, photographs, prints, and books accumulated during decades of research and travel, I explored the historical past that both inspired and reflected my own intellectual trajectory. Virtually every book I have written, to my genuine surprise, contained within it the seed of its successor. That, of course, is discernible only with hindsight--which, after all, is the distinctive attribute of a historian. I invite my family, friends, and interested readers to accompany me to some favorite destinations during my journey."