The Persians: Lost Civilizations

Description

Now available in paperback, The Persians tells the story of this cultured ancient civilisation, tracing the unique features of Persian life as well as their influence down the centuries. The book describes the difficulties early Persians encountered and how these contributed to their unique character and the establishment of the Achaemenid Empire. It recounts the keenly fought conflicts with the Greeks for mastery of the Eastern Mediterranean, a contest which was to dominate the geopolitics of the ancient world, and it paints a vivid picture of the many great Persian cities and their spectacular achievements: an efficient road system that linked an empire together; respect for their subject peoples; and advances in irrigation techniques which created a 'paradise' envied by their neighbours.

Geoffrey Parker is Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. His books include The Logic of Unity (1986), The Geopolitics of Domination from the Ottoman Empire to the Soviet Union (1988), Geopolitics: Past, Present and Future (1998), Sovereign City (2004) and Power in Stone (2014), both published by Reaktion Books.

'The second in the Lost Civilizations series, The Persians is also a compact, concise history of a whole civilisation - from its nomadic origins in the 1st and 2nd millennia BC to its new role as a tourist destination as modern-day Iran . . . Tellingly, the book's useful chronology ends in 2001 with the destruction of the Twin Towers. Today, Iran's power and influence is far from waning' - Minerva Magazine; 'Anyone looking for a concise overview of Iranian history from pre-Islamic times to the present could do worse than consult this elegantly written volume' - Choice