Scott Michael. Ancient Worlds: A Global History of Antiquity

Basic Books, 2016. — 448 p.Twenty-five-hundred years ago, civilizations around the world entered a revolutionary new era that overturned old order and laid the foundation for our world today. In the face of massive social changes across three continents, radical new forms of government emerged; mighty wars were fought over trade, religion, and ideology; and new faiths were ruthlessly employed to unify vast empires. The histories of Rome and China, Greece and India-the stories of Constantine and Confucius, Qin Shi Huangdi and Hannibal-are here revealed to be interconnected incidents in the midst of a greater drama.In Ancient Worlds, historian Michael Scott presents a gripping narrative of this unique age in human civilization, showing how diverse societies responded to similar pressures and how they influenced one another: through conquest and conversion, through trade in people, goods, and ideas.An ambitious reinvention of our grandest histories, Ancient Worlds reveals new truths about our common human heritage.Michael Scott is an Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the author of Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World, Delphi and Olympia: The Spatial Politics of Panhellenism in the Archaic and Classical Periods, Space and Society in the Greek and Roman Worlds, and From Democrats to Kings. Scott has written and presented a range of television and radio programs for National Geographic, History Channel, Nova, and BBC.