This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“And then, around that time,
civilization was born: urban life, based on nutritional surplus and social
organization, characterized by complexity and material culture, much of it made
possible by writing. This happened in a
very particular part of the world: the flood-prone, drought-wracked, frequently
pestilential plain of southern Iraq, where the rivers Tigris and Euphrates meet
the Persian Gulf. The plain could be
fertile, very fertile, but only when people worked together to irrigate it and
control the floods with channels and earthworks; this necessity, most likely,
accounts for much of the early surge in social complexity that distinguished
the area. Later civilizations would
arise independently in two great river valleys not so far away, the Indus and
the Nile, but the original organized, literate, urban culture was produced by a
far crueler and more challenging environment than either of those.” – Bartle
Bull, Prologue, Page xxi-xxii
“It was all based on endless war. For the Assyrians, what was originally
opportunistic brigandage eventually became an engine of self-sustaining
necessity. Facing a ceaseless succession
of tough neighbors on all sides, lacking both access to the sea and natural
defensive frontiers of their own, constantly provoking those around it with
never-ending rapine, the Assyrian state would die if it stopped fighting.” – Bartle
Bull, Chapter 3: Babylon and Assyria, Page 43
“In Babylon as elsewhere, Cyrus left administrations in
place but established above them a layer reporting directly to himself:
satraps, treasurers, and military commanders.
His basic administrative system was to endure until the arrival of
Alexander two centuries later. The
Macedonian then retained so much of the administration of the Persian Empire
that he Has frequently been called the last of the Achaemenids.” – Bartle Bull,
Chapter 4: Persians, Greeks, and Jews, Page 57
Is This An Overview?
Iraq is a Mesopotamian state whose culture influenced and
was influenced by world affairs. Iraq is
where Babylon once stood. Mesopotamia
developed social complexity to irrigate and control the floods which provided the
region with fertility that precipitated in civilization. The Sumerians developed governance of the
political, legal, and religious variety.
The Assyrians developed methods of war for their state was engaged in an
endless war. The Assyrians were
surrounded by powerful neighbors who threatened and were threatened by
Assyrians, creating conditions for war as a means of self-sustaining
necessity. The Persian Empire taught the
region that that collective membership of the various people was beneficial to
each. Persian administration was used
even by Alexander the Great. The
Parthians would influence Roman politics.
Science was developed under the Abbasid Caliphate. Faisal’s efforts gave Iraq independence after
the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Caveats?
Iraq is appropriately the subtitle, as the majority of the
book is about the societies of Mesopotamia.
There are few chapters directly about Iraq, the region that would become
Iraq, with various references to Iraq in other chapters. But much of the book is about societies which
controlled or influenced Iraq. Events which
often happened elsewhere in Mesopotamia or Arabia. The story of the region is told by focusing
on specific events, specific individuals which are used as representatives of
the era. A complex history is told, but
as with all history, there are limitations to what information is shared about
the societies observed.
