MARTIN GOODMAN'S BOOK, ROME AND JERUSALEM is reviewed by Adam Kirsch in the New York Sun. Excerpt:

Mr. Goodman's analysis of the causes of the Jewish War is necessarily speculative: It is impossible, at such a distance and with such meager evidence, to say exactly why Jews or Romans behaved as they did, or whether things might have turned out differently. But he usefully reminds us of the frightening power of chance in human history. If Eleazar had launched his rebellion a few years earlier or later, if Vitellius had prevailed over Vespasian, the Temple might still be standing today — and the history of the Jews, and the world, would be inconceivably different. It takes a book as magnificently learned as "Rome and Jerusalem" to make such alternative destinies come alive.