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Assyria’s Plunder offers a new history of ancient Assyria and its interactions with its client states of Israel and Judah. Considering the entanglement of modern imperialism with the historiography of ancient empire, Jessie DeGrado reassesses the conventional understanding of the Neo-Assyrian Empire using textual analysis, art history, and archaeology.
Engaging texts from Israel and Judah, DeGrado refuses the usual framings of Biblical resistance to Assyrian despotism and asks instead why subject populations may have capitulated to Assyrian rule. Paired chapters consider specific Assyrian imperial practices and biblical texts that engage them. As the study moves from the awe-filled spectacle of Assyrian throne rooms to the Assyrian policy of deporting divine statues, Assyria’s Plunder centers the embodied experiences of those subjected to Assyrian hegemony. DeGrado also explores how the empire’s violence still holds sway in the popular imagination while Euro-American imperialism goes largely unacknowledged.
Drawing on decolonial studies alongside epigraphic and textual analysis, Assyria’s Plunder shows how critical historiography and theory can enrich historical analysis and provide a fuller portrait of Assyrian interaction with its client states.
“An enormous contribution . . . I’ve been waiting for someone to write this book for thirty years.”
—Megan Cifarelli, professor emeritus, Manhattanville University
“DeGrado’s work is a nuanced take on the Assyrian empire, examining in depth and detail both its original, ancient context and its modern reception. The volume tackles a complicated topic well, engaging with a range of theories deftly and with care. Critically, it considers not just how the past influences the present but also how our present perspectives can influence the past.”
—Gina Konstantopoulos, University of California, Los Angeles
Jessie DeGrado is assistant professor of ancient Middle East studies at the University of Michigan.