Israel: splendours of the holy land

A sumptuous, well-documented, quarto-sized coffee-table book of distinction. Kochav is an Israeli with a background in both anthropology and sociology, with the fascinating specialty of history of the Anglican church in 19th-century Palestine. The key to this book is the images: sweeping aerial views, finely detailed museum artifacts, antique maps, 19th-century lithographs, plans of ancient buildings, and photographs of contemporary Israeli life.