Of all of Freud's later works, Moses and Monotheism can be said to hold a position of special interest that goes well beyond the specific historical ideas which it contains(1).

For one thing, Freud worked on it, albeit not continuously, throughout the last five years of his life, and one need only take a glance at the correspondence published so far, or at the numerous references made to it in the biography by Ernest Jones, to realize the fatigue involved in completing this work on Judaism, trauma and history, as well as the importance that Freud attributed to it (notwithstanding the casual way in which he would often speak of it).