Iraq: a history

"In this insightful analysis, highly-respected expert John Robertson canvases the entirety of Iraq's rich history, from the seminal advances of its Neolithic inhabitants to the aftermath of the American-led invasion and Iraq today. Grounded in extensive research, this balanced account of a country and its people explores the greatness and grandeur of Iraq's achievements, the brutality and magnificence of its ancient empires, its contributions to the emergence of the world's enduring monotheistic faiths, and the role the great Arab caliphs of Baghdad played in the medieval cultural flowering that contributed so much to the European Renaissance and the eventual rise of the West. Fascinating and thought-provoking, Robertson's work sheds light on a remarkable story of world history, one that has been too often overlooked. Wide-ranging and extensive in approach, it is sure to be greatly appreciated by historians, students and all those with an interest in this diverse and enigmatic country." --

Introduction : the glory and the curse of Iraq's past -- 1. Places, peoples, potentials : the enduring foundations of life in Iraq -- The "Land Between the Rivers" -- Distribution of raw materials and natural resources -- Iraq's accessibility and vulnerability to external forces -- The peoples and social patterns of Iraq -- 2. Cradle of civilization -- "History begins at Sumer" -- The first cities and the invention of writing -- The Early Dynastic Period (ca. 2900-22350 BCE) -- The Akkad Period (ca. 2350-2150 BCE) -- The Ur III Period (ca. 2100-2000 BCE) -- The Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian Periods (ca. 2000-1595 BCE) -- The Kassite and Middle Assyrian Periods (1595 to ca. 1000 BCE) -- Transition to empire, ca. 1100-900 BCE -- The great "world empires" (ca. 900-539 BCE) : the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods -- 3. Cradle of Empires -- The rediscovery of "the might that was Assyria" -- Assyria and the Bible : creating a bogeyman -- Assyrian zenith -- Babylon : the curse of an ancient image -- "The greatness that [really] was Babylon" -- The long twilight of Iraq's Ancient Imperial Era -- 4. Cradle of religions, crucible of conflicts -- Religion in ancient Mesopotamia/Iraq …