In the 14th century BC the Hittites became the supreme political and military power in the Near East. How did they achieve their supremacy? How successful were they in maintaining it? What brought about their collapse and disappearance? This comprehensive history of the Hittite kingdom seeks to answer these questions. It takes account of important recent advances in Hittite scholarship, including some major archaeological discoveries made in the last few years. It also features numerous translations from the original texts, so that on many issues the ancient Hittites are given the opportunity to speak to the modern reader for themselves. The revised edition contains a substantial amount of new material, as well as numerous other revisions to the first edition.

"Bryce's approach is...comparable to that of most historians approaching the political history of a European kingdom or a Chinese dynasty. He examines issues with an historian's eye and often casts events in a light which might not have appeared to an archaelogist or philologist attempting to write a work of history...eminently readable, well researched, and impeccably assembled."

"Bryce's volume represents an authoritative, comprehensive, up-to-date treatment of the political and military history of the Hittite kingdom..... Imperative reading for any serious inquiry on the Hittites by scholars of the ancient Near East."

"Beyond its full coverage of the course of events in second-millennium Anatolia, the real strength of The Kingdom of the Hittites is that Bryce looks at the world of the Hittites with the eye of a true historian.... He puts forward interpretations of events and rationales for the decisions of Hittite monarchs.... This book will be of great value to the Hittite specialist and to his/her students, as well as to the scholar of other regions and periods of the ancient world who wishes to become acquainted with the story of the first masters of Anatolia."

Trevor Bryce is Honorary Research Consultant, University of Queensland, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.