Bar Kokhba: The Jew Who Defied Hadrian and Challenged the Might of Rome

Written by Lindsay Powell
Review by Chris James

Part travelogue yet still solid non-fiction history, this is a story about two fascinating personalities and the doomed attempt of one, Bar Kokhba, to resist the power of the other, the emperor Hadrian (the same whose name is immortalised in a wall). I little knew that the latter, long considered a ‘good’ emperor if a little odd in his relationships and philhellenism, is so despised by Jewish scholars (“May his bones be ground to dust”).

I enjoyed the style of this book as we follow Powell on his historical inquiry—after all, that is what ‘historia’ is—into the Jewish revolts of the 2^nd century, and found it to be well-structured, researched and highly readable.  I would recommend this book to those interested in the long history of Israel/Palestine, those wishing to broaden their Roman historical knowledge and anyone who is simply looking for a fresh, insightful and short work of history.