cerandor 's review for:

Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek

5.0

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This is one of the most enjoyable non-fiction books that I've read in years. The author covers both the sweep of history across four thousand years and more of Mesopotamian culture and the fascinating details of daily life, such as arguments between husband and wife, or the day-to-day chores of a farmer. Most of all, he successfully shows both how the civilisations of Mesopotamia, as they rose and fell in succession, differed greatly from our own viewpoint on the world while also contributing but by bit to the world we have inherited. (My personal favourite anecdote being King Shulgi of Ur's invention of ultra-distance running.) If you have any interest at all in this part of the world, or in the grey area between myth and history, make it your business to read this.