Pt. 1 deals with biblical and rabbinic texts on exile and relations with non-Jews. Pt. 2 deals with Zionism and the views of thinkers such as Herzl, Jacob Klatzkin, and Yehezkel Kaufmann, who believed that secular messianism would solve the "Jewish question" and tended to view antisemitism as a natural response to the Jewish refusal to assimilate. Examines changes in the perception of Jewish history as a result of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel.