Judaism in Persia's Shadow: A Social and Historical Approach;

"This lively account of the influence of Persian history on the Hebrew Scriptures, and the people whose faith they express, places the emphasis exactly where it belongs. . . . this {is a} clear introduction . . . to the period, the time when a surprising amount of the Bible was written, but also to the issues of method that any serious study of the Bible must address".--Robert B. Coote, San Francisco Theological Seminary