Early today I completed Empires of the Middle East: A History of Babylonia from the Bronze Age to the Present by Thurman Boyles. This is going to be a very brief review, but suffice it to say the book was erudite, insightful and an excellent revision of the tropes and stereo-types pervasive in Middle Eastern studies to this day. In the last several years I have become intimately familiar with literally thousands of sources, both primary and secondary on the region. If you have a decent foundation on the relevant literature …