Product Description

Iraq's contemporary image provides few clues to the magnificence and power of her past. Known as Mesopotamia ("land between the two rivers"), Iraq, which lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was probably the earliest center of human civilization. Here emerged the earliest scripts, the earliest architecture, and the earliest sciences. But Mesopotamia has always been in upheaval, down to the present day. The past hundred years have progressively closed to western access the land of ancient Mesopotamia. Yet Gilles Munier has been able to travel extensively in this war-torn country, and he brings a refreshingly compassionate vision of the land that was once the cradle of humanity. A sumptuously illustrated and impeccably documented history of the country whose borders include the ruins of ancient Nineveh, Chaldea (Abraham's birthplace), Babylon, and Samara. Embark upon a voyage of discovery to the place where writing was first invented, to the city that was the center of the Arab Golden Age.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #367319 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From Booklist
Iraq? Visit there? Well, if you so desire, if you want to gird your loins and take a trip to a place quite obviously in turmoil--be aware that it is an absolutely fascinating destination that has long been outside the bounds of U.S. tourists, and you need to read this guide cover to cover before you go. It was originally published in France, just before the 2003 allied invasion of Iraq, and it clearly fulfills the publisher's stated desire to produce a superior guide that would give "readers a clear insight into Iraq's rich history" and "contribute to a better understanding of the Iraqi people and their culture." The editorial staff felt it was important "at this point in time to bring out a book whose entire raison d'etre is to assume that Iraq is a country anyone might want to visit." What one finds inside its covers is a visually striking, information-filled, absolutely riveting excursion through all regions of this ancient land, with historical and cultural threads woven into a narrative from which the reader--and potential traveler--comes away both enlightened and awestruck. In addition, library patrons simply wanting good, basic background on this highly topical place will find their needs met here. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Gilles Munier is vice president of the Franco-Iraqi Institute for Economic Cooperation and he regularly organizes cultural tours to Baghdad.

Customer Reviews

If it's your only choice... pass it by
I was in the PX at Camp Arifjan looking for a book on Iraq before heading there, just so I can learn a little more about the people I'm going to be working with and training. There was only one selection, and although I have been able to gleam some useful information between the anti-American diatribe every other paragraph, I wish I had not wasted my money and passed it by. And I wish the PX had a better selection of books on Iraq.

A Brief Guide to Iraq Historial Sites
Two earlier reviewers have already noted the Frenchman author's anti-American bias in condeming the ousting of Saddam Hussein in Gulf War II, and in blaming the looting of Iraq's museums on the American soldiers, rather than on the Iraqi civilians themselves. Regarding Gulf War I, the author leaves the impression that the Allied Coalition set Kuwait's oil fields afire rather than Saddam. This paperback does profile many historical sites (most of them just mounds of rubble nowadays), but there are just a couple of rough travel-guide maps as to how to get somewhere. This paperback has a few photographs, but it should not be considered a major (let alone a minor) photograph book on Iraq. While the paperback details some city's importance 1500 years ago, the author fails to mention whether or not the city still really exists today and if anything remains even to be seen there. Based on this paperback, one would hate to drive out into the desert for many miles, only to find merely a pile of broken mud-bricks and no petrol to return. As a more important companion book, one needs to carry along "Iraq: The Bradt Travel Guide" for information regarding maps of cities, and possible hotel and restaurant accomodations.

Great Photographs - Pity About the Text
This guide to Iraq has some wonderful photographs, but the text is larded with anachronistic assertions and factual errors. For example, on page 11, Munier gives the dates for the Sumerian civilization as between 3500 to 2350 BCE, and then a few lines later says that the Sumerians had "agricultural knowledge that produced an improved, iron plow". That's pretty amazing, since the Iron Age and the smelting of iron in the region didn't begin for another 1100 years! It's the equivalent of saying that the MP3 player was introduced in the Middle Ages. Other absurdities abound, especially when Munier begins covering the more recent history of the country and his admiration for the former regime begins to show. If you want good photographs, it might be worth the money, but ignore the text: let's hope better guidebooks to Iraq are soon produced!