Nachman Kohen Krochmal (1785-1840) was the first Jewish historian to treat Jewish history as an integral part of all human history.

When Nachman Krochmal was born at Brody, Galicia, Poland, on Feb. 17, 1785, the Age of Enlightenment was reaching its height and German idealism was still in ascendant vogue. The messianic expectations of the previous centuries had been all but extinguished. A certain intellectual malaise affected European Judaism, thrown as it was into open contact for the first time with the mainstream of European thought and culture.

Krochmal disliked the philosophizing of Maimonides, which he felt had led Jewish thought to contemplate abstractions of reason. He disagreed with some of the basic tenets of the Enlightenment, particularly the belief in infinite human progress, hero worship, and the natural or innate goodness of man. He was also repelled by the inbred views of die-hard Jewish traditionalists, who viewed the history...