"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." -- Provided by publisher.

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 -- The Achaemenid Persians and the Religion of the Wise Lord -- Alexander the Great and the coming of Hellenism -- Iraq under Parthian rule : religious toleration and vitality -- From Palestine to Mesopotamia : Iraq as a cradle of world religions -- Iraq under the Sassanids : religious mosaic and Holy War -- Jews under the Sassanids -- Christians under the Sassanids -- "Gnostics" and the Apostle of Light ; 5. Iraq, Islam, and the Golden Age of the Arab Empire : Prelude to the coming of Islam and the Arab conquest of Iraq -- Muhammad and the origins of the Community of Islam -- The Arab Muslim conquest of Iraq : the early forging of Arab (versus Persian) identity -- Iraq and the early forging of Shi'ite (versus Sunni) identity -- Iraq under Umayyad rule -- The Abbasid Caliphate : Iraq as the center of Islamic civilization -- Abbasid decline : Iraq drifts away from center stage ; 6. Interlude : from cradle to backwater : Iraq under the Buyids, Seljuks, and Mongols -- The coming of the Seljuks and Turkish authority -- The Crusades and Saladin -- The Mongol invasion and its aftermath -- Iraq in the era of the "gunpowder empires" -- European inroads -- The seeds of Iraq's revival ; 7. The creation and zenith of modern Iraq : Setting the stage -- World War I and its aftermath : the Hashemite Monarchy, the British, and oil -- Enter oil -- The birth of Iraqi and Arab nationalisms -- The nationalist response to British domination -- Arab and Iraqi nationalism, the Cold War, the emergence of Israel, and the poisoned blessing of oil -- The Republic : competing nationalisms, resistance to the West, and new wealth -- The continuing development and impact of Iraqi and Arab nationalism under the Republic -- Iraq's conquest of its oil under the Republic ; 8. The long descent : Republican Iraq and the Cold War powers until 1980 -- Saddam's Qadissiya : the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-88 -- The crisis with Kuwait -- Operation Desert Storm -- 1991-2003 : the scourge of sanctions -- The Anglo-American invasion of Iraq ; Epilogue : "Tell me how this ends."