Review by Kirkus Reviews, published on January 17, 2025: "A dazzling work of research, written with the flair of a novel."

Jewish Book Council Review by Brian Hillman, published on April 14, 2025: "Nathaniel Isaacs (1808−1872) can gen­er­ous­ly be described as a sailor, an entre­pre­neur, a writer, a diplo­mat, and an adven­tur­er. There is strong evi­dence that he was also a slave-trad­er, an absen­tee father, a vicious mer­ce­nary, and a gen­er­al dis­sem­bler. Adam Rover’s Isaacs’s biog­ra­phy of Isaacs, The Jew Who Would Be King, func­tions as an entry point into dis­cus­sions of colo­nial­is