Customer Reviews

The Ancient Assyrians (Elite)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Healy's book gives a quick review of the Assyria Empire from start to finish in a mere 64 pages. However its shortness is made up by the wonderful photos (12 in color) and diagrams presented in the book. One unusaul aspect of this book is there is no table of contents, index, or biblography. It's almost written like a research paper that was converted into a published book. Nevertheless the purchase price is well worth the money.

This fascinating book is an excellent resource to have on the ancient Assyrians. It begins with a history of the Assyrians, from earliest times, through their rise to greatness, and on to their fall. Then, the book gets into the part that is its truly greatest part, a look at the tactics and technology of the Assyrian army. The crowning glory of the book, though, is definitely the twelve color illustrations by the great Angus McBride, which shows the Assyrians as they truly looked.

This is a great book, an excellent resource for anyone who is studying the Assyrians or ancient warfare. Even though the book is short, it is crammed full of useful and interesting information, one that I highly treasure. I give this gook my highest recommendation.

I'm a history major, for the record. I've heard all manner of semi-scholarly critisism of these Osprey books so I'll sum it all up and rather than give the book a one star for what it isn't, I'll review it for what it is.
These books are very entertaining introductory histories of their various (military) topics. The illustrations demonstrate their intent quite clearly: to entertain as much as to inform. These books are intended for laymen who enjoy military history, possibly the re-enactment crowd, and definitely bright adolescents. As "Illustrated Histories" go, they're quite excellent and I'm collecting them for my kids.
*WARNING-THESE BOOKS ARE NOT APPROPRIATE AS SCHOLARLY RESEARCH MATERIALS*
There are no footnotes, endnotes, citations, and no bibliography. There is the occasional (usually relatively minor) inaccuracy which is not a big deal for kids and laymen but is a major issue for academics.

That said, these books could help you out as introductions to material. For example, I bought and read this one as a general introduction to Assyrian military practices. It gave me enough of a grasp of the material to focus the thesis of my paper and know what kinds of things I should research. I did not use this book as a source!!

It is what it is, and as an entertaining introductory read for youths and laymen it is great. You ought not to expect a mass market paperback to live up to academic standards. If thats what you want, you should know that books meeting those standards are usually published by "(Insert name of Institution) Univeristy Press" or are primary sources (people who were there and wrote down what they saw).

Without detracting from an otherwise well researched & written book, the awesome artwork in this book is worth the price tenfold. Best illustrations anywhere on the subject.

The typical elite title, focuses mostly on a detailed view of the different branches of the Assyrian army, their gear, roles, and tactics, but as it tells the story of the Assyrian army and campaigns in pretty much tells the story of Assyria. The Assyrians, although a very different people from the Mongols, still stand out like them in certain ways-both were sadistically cruel and thought nothing of slaughtering civilizations (a zesty description of Assyrian torture of rebel chieftains is given early in the book), but also showed great administrative skills and almost unnatural talent at all forms of warfare-light and heavy cavalry and infantry, and sieges. The Assyrians clashed with most of the powers of their day-the Egyptians, the Hittites, the Israelites, the Syrians, the Arabs, and the Elamites, and were also having to put down Babylonian rebellions many times every century. At their greatest extent they ruled over most all of modern Iraq east to Elam (Iran), along with Urartu (Armenia), eastern Turkey, the entire Palestinian coastline south into Egypt. It was only relentless rebellions and civil wars that finally brought them to their knees, but their destruction was complete-their capital was thoroughly razed and subsequently forgotten, and as the Biblical prophet said (Nahum 3:19), the Ancient World rejoiced. As would be expected, Angus McBride's artwork really brings them to life, but even without that this would still be an essential book.

First, I would like to say I'm an Assyrian and I would like to clarify the bad image publicized by some people. Just because the Assyrians had the first greatest military, doesn't mean they weren't nice people. All armies were brutal, Persian, Greek, Roman, etc... Beside having a great military, Assyrians contributed to medicine, astronomy, science and all the other fields. A person must do some research before making such claims.

As for the book, it includes some excellent information. And the illustrations were also excellent.

They wer once a mighty Empire-forged in battle, maintained by
State Terrorism, and ended when their numerous enemies joined
to destroy them.

You can thank them for originating the gruesome practice of im-
palement as a weapon of terror, later adopted by Wallachia's
Prince Vlad Tepes.

Military historians will find this of interest, as will Living
History buffs, for the illustrations are excellent, details of
armor, war-chariots, etc. are all depicted very well.

These were not exactly the nicest people on the block in the an-
cient Middle East, far from it, but a study of their history is
integral to furthering one's understanding of Middle Eastern
history.