Charles F. Horne (1870–1942)

I finished this up earlier but wasn't really sure what to say about it. It's a historical document, and you'd be hard pressed to find many documents older this one. The carving has been dated to approximately 1790 BCE, which makes it several hundred years older than the earliest estimates for the writing of the first books of the Bible (which were just bumped back by a lot).

As such it doesn't really seem fair to judge it by my normal book stands...the fact that its the law of Babylon as show more dictated by King Hammurabi (according to the will of the gods) seems to support that. I mean who judges the literary merit of a code of law? Even when it is divine?

So what can I say about this other than that its short and the Victorian intro was somewhat ethnocentric? Honestly, it sounds an awful lot like some of the legal parts of the Bible. It tells you way more than even the average ancient Babylonian would want to hear about what your recourse is should your neighbor eff up the irrigation on it's way to your crop or cut down your tree. On the other hand it's pretty neat to see the similarities between how the Babylonians and Hebrews dealt with things like unfaithful wives, rape and slavery. Some of the Babylonian laws are actually pretty progressive for the time, like protecting a woman's right to own property (under certain circumstances). Of course there are also a lot of pretty strange and barbaric ones.

If you're interested in ancient history and government this would definitely be a good thing to check out. It probably won't be of interest to a general audience, but if you are interested you can check it out at Project Gutenberg.

There really are a lot or interesting laws listed and I wish I could share them all. However in the name of brevity I'll just share an example of the similarities between the Code of Hammurabi and the Bible. Here's a pre-Bible precedent for the Biblical "eye for an eye" creed. It is admittedly more awkwardly worded (and classist) than the pithy Bible version.

196. If a man has caused the loss of a gentleman’s eye, his eye one shall cause to be lost.

197. If he has shattered a gentleman’s limb, one shall shatter his limb.

198. If he has caused a poor man to lose his eye or shattered a poor man’s limb, he shall pay one mina of silver.

199. If he has caused the loss of the eye of a gentleman’s servant or has shattered the limb of a gentleman’s servant, he shall pay half his price. show less

Biased, but typical of that era. A keen snapshot into popular feelings of the Great War's beginnings, and insightful into the seeds that later flourished in the form of World War II. This book was published in the early thirties, I believe.

is it just me, or is this title sexist? this old, oversized compendium of biographies runs from John Adams to Franklin and Cuvier to Peter the Great. Both sides of the Atlantic are covered with the occasional woman, like Empress Maria Therese.

Great black and white line drawings.