In this study Lester Grabbe dispenses with the trend in Biblical scholarship towards new literary study and postmodernist criticism, to advocate a "close reading" of the text itself. The main focus of this book, discussed in Part I gives a close reading of the final form of the text; the Hebrew "Ezra", the Hebrew "Nehemiah", 1 Esdras and other "Ezra" and Nehemiah traditions. Part I concludes with a discussion of intertextuality and the growth of various traditions. Part II explores the questions of historicity raised by a close reading of the texts themselves to argue that a close reading of the text has clear implications for any conclusions about historicity. This book presents a two-fold approach to "Ezra-Nehemiah" - literary and historical. Lester Grabbe challenges commonly held assumptions about Joshua and Zerubbabel, the initial resettlement of land after the exile, the figure of Ezra and the acitivities of Nehemiah. It challenges commonly held assumptions not from radical theory, but from careful attention to the text itself.