• I stopped reading in Chapter 2, mid-section on Persia and Rome. • The book is immediately readable—remarkably comprehensive while still accessible. For something titled “Concise History” it already feels much deeper and more structured than Mansfield’s early chapters, and in a good way. • The introduction makes the intentions of the book clear: this is a broad, layered stage-setter for understanding the entire region. Even by Chapter 2, I can tell this edition (13th!) reflects decades of refinement. • It’s already filling in gaps Mansfield touched but didn’t explore, especially around antiquity and the political geography leading into Islam’s rise. • Early impression: this is “concise” only by a historian’s sense of time. For the rest of us, it’s substantial, detailed, and very well crafted.
• I stopped reading in Chapter 2, mid-section on Persia and Rome.
• The book is immediately readable—remarkably comprehensive while still accessible. For something titled “Concise History” it already feels much deeper and more structured than Mansfield’s early chapters, and in a good way.
• The introduction makes the intentions of the book clear: this is a broad, layered stage-setter for understanding the entire region. Even by Chapter 2, I can tell this edition (13th!) reflects decades of refinement.
• It’s already filling in gaps Mansfield touched but didn’t explore, especially around antiquity and the political geography leading into Islam’s rise.
• Early impression: this is “concise” only by a historian’s sense of time. For the rest of us, it’s substantial, detailed, and very well crafted.