Note 50 — MEMOIR OF HEINRICH GRAETZ. (continued 2)

The Protestant clergyman and diplomat, Jacob Basnage (d. 1723), historiographer of the Netherlands, was the first to write a history of the Jews down to his own time. The means at his command were inadequate and his historical insight hazy, yet he produced a connected account, which Jost took as a guide. The second attempt of the kind was made by an American woman, a Christian, Hannah Adams of Boston (1818), who was able to use only secondary sources. Cmp. for the predecessors of Graetz, his Geschichte, XI, p. 452 ff. (American Edition, V, p. 593).