Algaze s first book, "The Uruk World System"(Chicago 1993, 2nd ed. 2005), is the story of how an urban based power expanded outward to become the largest empire in the early civilized world for almost a thousand years beginning around 4000 BC. There Algaze focuses on the dynamics of this expansion and shows how Uruk s increasing economic dependence on the periphery of the empire for essential materials and as a source of cheap labor ultimately led to the whole empire s demise, though its influence lived on in northern ...
Read More
Algaze s first book, "The Uruk World System"(Chicago 1993, 2nd ed. 2005), is the story of how an urban based power expanded outward to become the largest empire in the early civilized world for almost a thousand years beginning around 4000 BC. There Algaze focuses on the dynamics of this expansion and shows how Uruk s increasing economic dependence on the periphery of the empire for essential materials and as a source of cheap labor ultimately led to the whole empire s demise, though its influence lived on in northern European kingdoms. Here, in"Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization," Algaze focuses instead on the dynamics within the city of Uruk itself during the same time period. Combining original archaeological research on the history of ancient rivers east of the Euphrates with sophisticated political economic theory, Algaze argues that cities and states arose in southern Mesopotamia earlier than anywhere else because the rivers there enabled a greater degree of trade which in turn led to important innovations in organizing labor as well as information processing. While not downplaying the role of individual actors in this drama, Algaze emphasizes the centrality of geography in the earliest known development of urban civilization."
Read Less
