Livius: Let’s Abandon Achaemenid Studies

JONAS LENDERING AT LIVIUS:

Let’s Abandon Achaemenid Studies

Three books on the Achaemenid Empire, all aiming at the general audience. One of them is just bad, the second one is unnecessary, the third explains what everybody already knows. This is the wrong way to introduce people to one of the most fertile branches of ancient history.

Kaveh Farrokh,Shadows in the Desert (2007)
Tom Holland, Persian Fire (2005)
Bruce Lincoln, Religion, Empire, and Torture (2007)

The reviews also contain a wealth of internal links to pages relevant to ancient Iran at the Livius site.

UPDATE: I just noticed that these reviews are two-and-a-half years old. But I only noticed them today and they are of undiminished interest.