Land Between the Rivers

Reviews / Votes

Elegant, erudite, ambitious, inventive - a remarkable blend of research, imagination and first-hand experience. * Rory Stewart * A work of great ambition that sets out five millennia of the history of one of the great cradles of global civilisations. Bartle Bull has done a fantastic job to explain how the land between the rivers had shaped local, regional and global affairs - and used his deep knowledge of contemporary Iraq to produce an account that is informed, filled with insights and a cracking read too.' * Peter Frankopan, bestselling author of The Silk Roads and The Earth Transformed * Conceptual originality and laudable ambition... Inspired by firsthand experience of the region... A sweeping history. * New York TImes * A sweeping and superbly written epic... Bull makes good use of recent research but his view of the region is unencumbered by academic fashion. He is a more compassionate, and much better informed, heir to Gertrude Bell... Throughout his account, Mr. Bull highlights the human, and humanist, threads in the political tapestry. * Wall Street Journal * Dazzling erudition and narrative flair come together in this superb history of Iraq. Bartle Bull has travelled the length and breadth of the country, he has toiled away in libraries and archives, and the result is a grand, sweeping book, full of insight and brimming with all the agonies and ecstasies which have befallen the cradle of civilization during its tumultuous 5,000-year story. Land Between The Rivers is essential reading' * Justin Marozzi, author of Islamic Empires * Iraq's history is that of much of human civilization and to do it justice in a single volume requires a combination of learning, discernment and flair that few possess. Bartle Bull is one of the few. Panoptic, fearless and beautifully written' * Christopher de Bellaigue, author of The Lion House and The Islamic Enlightenment * Succeeds in weaving this daunting welter of material into a work that is not just clear and coherent, but also enthralling and thought-provoking... He [...] makes excellent use of the journalist's skill of picking out a telling personal story to illustrate the wider picture... [A] masterly work of compression... Bull's enjoyable book encourages us to think more about a place that has made profound contributions to humanity and retains a geopolitical and cultural significance that we neglect at our peril. * Literary Review * Bull conveys the excitement of uncovering new intellectual treasures for the reader... Engaging research and bottomless detail by an avid observer and student of the region. * Kirkus * A sweeping and superbly written epic... Throughout his account, Mr. Bull highlights the human, and humanist, threads in the political tapestry. -- Dominic Green * Wall Street Journal *