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 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.

Dozens of maps provide a clear geography of great events, while timelines give the reader an ongoing sense of the passage of years and cultural interconnection. This old-fashioned 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.

13 illustrations, 80 maps

• The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade
• The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople
• Study and Teaching Guide: The History of the Ancient World: A curriculum guide to accompany The History of the Ancient World
• The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land
• A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age
• The Story of Western Science: From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory
• The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had (Updated and Expanded)
• The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (Fourth Edition)
• 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
• The Twelve Caesars