Bertrand Lafont

If ever a book deserved the qualification 'doorstopper', it is this: more than 1,000 pages long, and almost 2 kilograms in weight. A tough one, indeed, but it also covers more than 3,000 years of human history in the wide region of the land of Tigris and Eufraat, present-day Iraq, with excursions to Syria, SW Turkey, the Levant and Iran. A top team of French specialists in the history of this area contributed to this, but this is not an academic work at all, on the contrary: the whole set-up is very didactic, with legible texts, and a lot of cards, frame pieces and lavish illustrations. But because it is very exhaustive and at the same time very nuanced, it will certainly not appeal to the ordinary reader. Some chapters do go very deeply into the complex history of this area, with an abundance of details. Overall, I was very excited (as my high rating shows), but it took me over a month to get through it all. In short: exhaustive, balanced, and awesomely illustrated, this is just great. It's a pity it isn't translated yet. As far as I know there isn't an equivalent English study that can match this one. More on that in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4636421236.… (meer)