The Armenian People

The Armenian People: From Ancient to Modern Times: Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century, edited by Richard G Hovannisian, 324 pages

The earliest recorded name for the land of Armenia is Urartu (transliterated into Hebrew as Ararat), meaning "high place", a suitable name for the high plateau between the lower Anatolian and Iranian plateaus.  This volume chronicles the occasional glories and more frequent sufferings of the inhabitants of that storied land from prehistory through the Classical period, the coming of Christianity, and the Arab, Turk, and Mongol conquests to the dawn of the modern age.

Despite each chapter being written by a different historian, some of whom cover some of the same ground from somewhat different perspectives, the whole coheres remarkably well.  The inevitable avalanche of names and places is made more manageable by the inclusion of dynastic tables and maps illustrating the changing human geography.