In the West, the history of Christianity almost never includes the east, and when it does, it stops at the Orthodox church. This book covers the history of the Assyrian church and churches further east. It is fairly readable, and tries to fill in the history of the surrounding regions as well. It changed my perspective of Christianity and gave me a better sense as to what in Christianity is essential.

Some problems: some of the footnotes are used for irrelevant tangents, and the scholarly character drops from time to time. Also, the lists of kings and patriarchs should be an appendix, not scattered through the footnotes.

I have used this text as the base text for an undergraduate course in Christianity East of Jerusalem and found it excellent for the purpose. The material is divided into small enough pieces for the students to handle and there is enough quotation of original sources in translation to give them a feel for some of the variety of Christian life in that broad area and span of time. I recommend it also for individual readers.