Land Between the Rivers

A 5,000-Year History of Iraq

By: Bartle Bull

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

At the start of the fourth millennium BC, civilization arrived with the advent of cities and the invention of writing that began to replace legend with history. This occurred on the floodplains of southern Iraq where the rivers Tigris and Euphrates meet the Persian Gulf. As Bartle Bull reveals in his magisterial history, "if one divides the 5000 years of human civilization into ten periods of five centuries each, during the first nine of these the world's leading city was in one of the three regions of current day Iraq"—or to use its Greek name, Mesopotamia.

Bull chronicles the story of Iraq from the exploits of Gilgamesh to the fall of the Iraqi monarchy that ushered in its modern era. The land between the rivers has been the melting pot and battleground of countless outsiders. Here, Judaism was born and the Sunni-Shia schism took its bloody shape.

Central themes play out over the millennia: humanity's need for freedom versus the co-eternal urge of tyranny; the conflict and cross-fertilization of East and West with Iraq so often the hinge. We tend to view today's tensions in the Middle East through the prism of the last hundred years. Bull's sweeping achievement reminds us that the region defined by the land between the rivers has for five millennia played a uniquely central role on the global stage.

©2024 Bartle Bull (P)2024 Tantor

This is a terrible book & I’m a worse person for having read it.

From the beginning of the book, the author’s assertion that being a journalist in the area for 10 years makes him an authority on the subject made me raise an eyebrow. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and trudged on.

Throughout, Bull’s disdain for Muslims and Arabs is palpable. He very clearly sees them as less-than human and goes out of his way and seemingly without purpose, to include nasty quotes from old white men about Arabs being “beasts.”

His description of Prophet Mohammad included claims I have literally never read or heard in my life - i.e. “he never laughed or smiled.” Like, what? I’ve read a lot of books about early Islam and I’ve never, ever heard this. Bull is also sure to avoid any positive descriptors of Mohammad or his companions during his lifetime or anything positive from his legacy.

I’m sad that so many reviewers think that this “book” is a good overview of history in the region. I mean, my god, just take a look at the epilogue to see that this man is blinded by his hate for these people. He justifies the US’s invasion of Iraq where Bull basically says “Saddam *was* being sneaky.” He also blames Iraq for 9/11 (WHAT?!) & claims Saddam was linked with al-queda despite admitting all reports say otherwise and tries to say they still ‘may’ have had WMD. He says Hussein did not comply with UN weapons inspections which is such an insane claim that the war hawks aren’t even saying this!

I have a hard time believing that Dick Cheney himself would have gone this hard justifying the invasion.

Also, the author has clear fetishizing tendencies. Any time he can find a vague reference to anything sexual, you can bet he’s included it. As if he’s saying “oh, you think these people were modest? No! They wrote a book called ‘Masturbation’!” His descriptions of vast amounts of time are boiled down to an Eastern fetish with Harems. His aim is to humiliate but it comes across as an unhealthy infatuation on Bull’s behalf.

He is loath to credit Arabs or Muslims with any of their achievements - forcing in a way to credit ancient Greeks instead.

tldr: this guy/book are the worst & I’m so pissed I wasted my time/$ on garbage that Tucker Carlson may as well have written. Pretty sure Saddam slept with his mom or something.