Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization

This is an excellent survey of ancient Mesopotamian civilisation, from its beginnings 5000 years ago until the occupation of Babylon by Cyrus of Persia. Kriwaczek writes in an erudite journalistic style that is a pleasure to read. The author uses major historical events to provide a kind of narrative tension, and between these he draws on many different sources to recreate detailed impresssions of ancient daily life, including excerpts from the actual stories, myths, epic poems and letters preserved on steles and clay tablets. The result is a remarkably well paced overview of human civilisation as an arc, passing through different societies over thousands of years. The book itself is a very satisfying read, but it also concludes with a long annotated reading list, for those want to explore specific topics in more detail. * Note that the Kindle edition has all of the maps (there are 8 of them) but none of the photo illustrations, which is really a pity. And I can't imagine why it should have been so difficult to include them: even a low-res black & white photo would be enough to give first-timers like me an idea of what a ziggurat looks like, for example. But the text of the book still reads well enough without them.

Much of the book was dry and hard to digest. It was excellent. I don't think this was the author's fault, though. It is subject matter. The author had a writing style I really liked. He had both philosophical and psychological insight. Additionally, the book filled so many gaps in my knowledge of ancient history that I lost count. He did rush through the latter part, the part on Assyria, and I thank God that he did. The character of Assyria does not fit with the over-all character of millennia of Mesopotamian history. Overall, the story of Sumer, really over half the text of the book, was fascinating, as was the story of Babylon. If you are looking for a book with lots of tales of titillating battles and military strategy, then this is definitely not the book for you. There is very little of that. This book deals with archeological discoveries, some of them quite revealing and quite amazing, and with the philosophical and politically strategic patterns in history prior the "Story of the Greeks and Persians." It discusses ancient Mesopotamian Law and sense of Justice, sociology and religious philosophy. It discussing what we know about these and more importantly, how we know. It correlates the study to modern times, to Biblical Times and to relevant similar times throughout history. One review of a book I read about Ancient Macedonia criticized that author's lack of "insight," because the reviewer did not feel that the author delved deeply enough into the underlying thought patterns of the time. No one would ever make such a charge against the author of this work. One such example is his analysis of the origins of modern day monotheism and religious misogyny that was partially borne in Assyria, and how, with the changing view of what the role of God was and what his relationship to humans is, it was inevitable (that discussion, the best part of the book, begins on page 225 if you are truly interested).

Quite well written. Worth owning.

You don't have to be a history buff to enjoy this book. The style of writing is excellent. The author reveals that the ancient people were real live individuals. Without giving anything away, he shows the cuneiform tablets to almost be diaries of day-to-day living. He gives a great overview not only of these great civilizations, but what it was like to live in that ancient time. He also shows that our present day "greatness" represents our merely following ancient footsteps in the sand. This is not just a history book. It is a thought-provoking work that makes one wonder where we are now and where we are going.

I purchased the Kindle version of this book in 2017. I was looking for something about the beginnings of civilization. For me, the book turned out to be a real snoozer, mostly owing to the tidal wave of historical gobbledygook. Not what I was hoping for in learning about Mesopotamian beginnings and everyday life. So, I put the book aside. However, earlier this year, an audiobook version of the book was offered by Audible. Thought I would give it a try. I listened to the audio narration while reading the Kindle version. This time, I got through the book. While the underlying research was impressive, the presentation was still historical gobbledygook. One huge annoyance was that the Kindle version did not provide the photos (20) that the author was describing in his explanation. I had to search for the photo being described on another device – i.e., a true multimedia approach to reading a single book. I agree with the reviews that found the book too wide and too shallow. Hard to understand why a book entitled “Babylon” did not offer a single word about its famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world (I did a search of the book). This book was not for me. I do not recommend it.

4.3 out of 5. Great read! THE POSITIVE: If you want to know about Babylon, this explains the history of its rise and fall. Goes into detail about the relationship between Babylon and Assyria, to its eventual crushing by Persian King, Cyrus the Great. Because the primary sources are bits and pieces of fragments, & perished into dust due to time, the author goes into great detail to extract any information and history that will add in the understanding of the Babylonian Kingdom, its Kings, as well as Babylonian customs. THE NEGATIVE: due to limited primary sources, at times it almost feels as if the author is forced to use the history contained in the Bible to explain the events of Babylon. This is not a problem in itself, but the author gives the sense disliking the Bible. For example, he undermines the scriptures by trying to establish Babylon as being the source of many of the Bibles accounts (For example, he relates Sargon being placed in a basket to float down the river as the inspiration for the Biblical account of Moses. He trys to link the dream of Jacob with the staircases going to heaven, with the temples the priests used to ascend. Likewise, he uses terms like cult for the Jewish exiles who returned to build Jerusalem.) The way the author introduces the Bible when forced to do so, due to other sources being destoryed and not as reliable, feels like he doesnt want to give credit, when the Bible has truly proven to survive the test of time as well as remain reliable to history. OVERALL: Great read!!! 4.3 out of 5

This book shows how the distant past has much to teach us, and one thing that caught me by surprise was that the financial system was every bit as complex as ours (futures and all), and it's impressive because they did it without computers. A scribe was a combination lawyer/ banker drawing up contracts, and all they had was their memory, a stick and slabs of clay. Their free-wheeling economic system crashed and burned too, usually resulting in people having to sell themselves or other family members into slavery to cover their debts. Fortunately we have now have bankruptcy as an option and have done away with the slavery, but you can see that either way there is no happy ending. It's too bad this isn't widely known or maybe someone might have spotted the parallels with our own situation in time to avert trouble. The book is packed with fascinating facts and you learn a lot about why the Middle East is the way it is. Some thinking that seems backward to us makes perfect sense when you find out the context and back-story; we still may not agree with it but at least we will understand it better. This should be a text book used in grade school when studying about the earliest civilizations instead of the boring stuff they're using now. I love history and reading but was put off this subject in school years ago due to the horrible text books, and only started reading about the period again after taking an art history course- the images drew me in. These people are interesting, and Mr. Kriwaczek makes it clear that there were some real characters. After all, history is the never-ending story of what actual people did, and it should be a crime to squeeze the life out of it. That's not a problem with this book and I enjoyed learning from it.

Extremely interesting and well written history! Going back before 4,000 BC; speaking of Gilgamesh and The Flood and how civilization developed into Babylon and Assyria. Black and white maps and photos. Highly recommend!!

Very well written, the subject is fascinating. I did not know that much about Mesopotamia before reading this book, especially taht they had tried so many different systems or that they were so closely related to our present day ideas, techniques and myths.

Este libro es una de las joyas de kindle, es sin duda la historia de babilonia con muchas relaciones a temas de la actualidad, momentos de descubirimientos o devastaciones arqueologicas importantes, es un libro que se disfrutará mucho y contiene alto contenido historico pero relatado con una narrativa interesante y no tediosa.

Lo he comprado a través del vendedor que recomendaba amazon, the book depository y sólo me ha costado 6 euros y 3 de envío. Total: 9 euros. Ha tardado unos 10 días en llegar en perfecto estado a través de corros. Una compra totalmente recomendada.

Interesting Well written.

It’s more about Mesopotamia and is talking to much about the present. Then and there-there is Good info, but usually it’s just a bunch whole of nothing for those who don’t study it. DONT BUY if you want straight chronological order- and no commentary.