"Professor Payaslian''s exceptional text on the history of the Armenians brings new insights on the development of the Armenian nation in the first millenium B.C. to the present. His work with the pre-Armenian material is quite inclusive and he seems able to think through the enormous amount of random information we have on the pre-literate period, and make sense of it. His understanding of the following Persian period is exceptional and equal to his work in the modern period, which is his specialty."--John A. C. Greppin, Professor of Linguistics, Cleveland State University