| Foreword | |
| Preface to the 1996 Edition | |
| Preface to the 1989 Edition | |
| Prologue to the Original Edition | |
| 1 | Biblical and Rabbinic Foundations: Meaning in History, Memory, and the Writing of History | 1 |
| 2 | The Middle Ages: Vessels and Vehicles of Jewish Memory | 27 |
| 3 | In the Wake of the Spanish Expulsion | 53 |
| 4 | Modern Dilemmas: Historiography and Its Discontents | 77 |
| Postscript: Reflections on Forgetting | 105 |
| Notes | 118 |
| Index | 147 |