The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome
A lively and engaging narrative history showing the common threads in the cultures that gave birth to our own. This is the first volume in a bold new series that tells the stories of all peoples, connecting historical events from Europe to the Middle East to the far coast of China, while still giving weight
A lively and engaging narrative history showing the common threads in the cultures that gave birth to our own.
This is the first volume in a bold new series that tells the stories of all peoples, connecting historical events from Europe to the Middle East to the far coast of China, while still giving weight to the characteristics of each country. Susan Wise Bauer provides both sweeping scope and vivid attention to the individual lives that give flesh to abstract assertions about human history. This narrative history employs the methods of “history from beneath” – literature, epic traditions, private letters, and accounts – to connect kings and leaders with the lives of those they ruled. The result is an engrossing tapestry of human behavior from which we may draw conclusions about the direction of world events and the causes behind them.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
Bestsellers 2021
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The future is not a foreign country Having read rather more than a few books on human history, I would recommend Bauer. She has written an excellent series here, this being the first one. I particularly like the occasional sprinkle of ironic humour, which frankly we deserve as a species. But the message is also pretty clear from bare fact: weâre a mostly brutal species and if history offers a lesson then the future will not be full of light and wonder.
Mostly very good, but slightly biased This is a very good book, and I learned a lot. The only criticism I would make is that early in the book she often portrays biblical stories as established fact, whereas stories from other cultures she makes clear what is most likely just legend. She should be just as critical of biblical stories as she is with other culture’s ancient stories.
Excellent An excellent overview of history from the earliest times. For fairly obvious reasons it’s a Dates And Names book but weaves together the various kingdom and empires and it gave me a better understanding of which of them co-existed and when..A great read for the casual student of history.