Ancient Near East

These books arrived much longer than I anticipated, and I had to email the store twice until I got a response.

This is one of the best "comprehensive" introductions to the Ancient Near East (ANE), which attempts to cover all the major civilizations from Egypt through the fertile crescent to ancient Persia. Given the breadth of the subject matter, she does a fine job. As earlier reviewers point out certain subjects (especially Egypt, which you can supplement with Grimal A History of Ancient Egypt, for instance) are somewhat skimpy, while others receive a reasonably good treatment. Kuhrt is especially good at interacting with the textual sources, which she always treats with scholarly detachment. There are, however, two major flaws with this 2-volume work. The maps are absolutely ATROCIOUS. A number of them are so poorly reprinted (from whichever sources they were originally taken) that they are nearly illegible; moreover, they rarely point out the places or geographical regions under discussion. I would have expected the publisher either to locate better maps or to draw up a new set of maps. Much cheaper books have managed to do so. The other flaw, in my estimation, is the actual publishing. The binding of this paperback is not nearly strong enough. Every copy I have ever seen of it (and it was a textbook in one of my classes) has developed a serious spine crack--even under the gentlest of use. Moreover, the paper used is the heavy, shiny, plastic-like paper often used for photographic plates. If the book were full color, I might understand the use of such paper, but since it is black-and-white I personally do not understand the choice of the publisher. Not only is the book disproportionately heavy, but one has to be extremely careful of lighting conditions when reading it in order to avoid glare on the text. If your interest in the ANE is merely a passing curiosity, I agree with a former reviewer that this book is not for you. Nevertheless, it is a very useful introduction for those who are seriously contemplating scholarship in the ANE.

Kuhrt's 2-volume work is an excellent source for teachers of ancient Near Eastern and/or world history. I have used it extensively for teaching the Near Eastern part of my course in ancient world history at Brigham Young University. Kuhrt gives good background information to paint the larger picture of the Near East and gives very helpful and insightful detail on specific periods of rule. He also includes important information on historical sources on the Near East and discusses their strengths and weaknesses. The maps, and the tables of dynasties, etc., are also very helpful. For those interested specifically in the ancient Israelites, Kuhrt gives a well-informed and substantially-detailed overview. But don't only read the Israelite section! A full reading gives the broader picture needed to see the full context of Israelite developments. I would recommend these books for upper-division (and where appropriate graduate) college/university courses and, perhaps, for advanced high school history courses.