A Human History of the World: From the First Cities to the Present

The land of ancient Mesopotamia, Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria, where the first cities and writing arose.

The full story of the civilisation of the Nile, from the Old Kingdom and the pyramids to Cleopatra.

The subcontinent from the Indus cities and the empires of Ashoka and the Guptas to the Mughals and modern India.

China across the ages, from the Shang oracle bones and the Mandate of Heaven to today.

Ancient and modern Greece, birthplace of democracy, philosophy, and much of Western thought.

Italy from the Roman Republic and Empire to the Renaissance and the modern nation.

The land of Constantinople and Byzantium, and heart of the Ottoman Empire.

An early centre of the Islamic caliphates and one of the oldest inhabited lands in the world.

Persia and modern Iran, from the ancient empires to the Safavids and today.

France from feudal Europe and the cathedrals to the Revolution of 1789 and beyond.

Britain, cradle of the Industrial Revolution and centre of the largest empire in history.

The steppe homeland of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire.

One of the oldest Christian nations, never colonised, with a deep and distinct history.

West Africa's most populous nation, heir to ancient kingdoms and a hub of the wider region.

The southern tip of Africa, from Great Zimbabwe's wider world to the modern nation.

The land of the Maya and the Aztecs, and of the Spanish conquest that followed 1492.

The Andean heartland of the Inca, the largest empire of the ancient Americas.

The power that launched the Age of Exploration and built the first global empire.

The largest nation of South America, shaped by the Columbian Exchange and Portuguese empire.

The first great modern republic, a Cold War superpower, and today's leading global power.

Germany from unification under Bismarck through two world wars to reunification.

Russia and the Soviet Union, home of the 1917 revolution and a Cold War superpower.

Japan's path from isolation to empire, war, and modern economic power.

The vast island nation whose independence was part of the wave of decolonisation.

A land whose long struggle for independence became a defining conflict of the Cold War.

A historic crossroads of Asia along the old Silk Road and the empires that crossed it.

A land at the heart of the ancient Near East and three world religions.