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 state.
This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries—and the generous support of the University of Michigan.
Downloads: Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-64642-801-4 EISBN: 978-1-64642-802-1 Publication Month: May Publication Year: 2026 Pages: 382 Illustrations: 24 Discount Type: Short Member Institution Access : Mountain Scholar
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Assyria's Plunder: From Ancient Empire to Modern Loot
Jessie DeGrado
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