The History of the Ancient World

From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome

By: Susan Wise Bauer

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2007 Susan Wise Bauer (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

A little too complex for enjoying while commuting.

Without maps or lists of names to refer to, it is difficult to keep track of the geographic layout of various peoples and kingdoms.

The book does a very nice job of covering the written history of the ancient world, including people of eastern Asia. In some way I like the interleaving of the history of the entire Eurasian continent, but from an audiobook listener’s standpoint, it can be quite difficult to remember the intrigues surrounding the Han dynasty when multiple chapters of Greek, Persian, and Egyptian history are intervening.


I have concerns about the reliability of the material, as ancient sources are known to be biased by modern standards. Where possible, the author does compare ancient records of the same event in an attempt to pick out the kernels of truth, but often a single source (such as Herodotus) is quoted and implicitly taken as the true story.

I have no qualms with the audio performance. The reader does an excellent job of clear and engaging speech even when the book bogs down in the palace intrigues involving numerous similarly-named Assyrian nobles.

Overall, I found the book an engaging review of ancient history, but I would not recommend the audiobook for people who, like me, are hoping to passively brush up on their ancient history while commuting to work. The book requires more attention than that.

Reads like an epic fantasy

Reads like an epic fantasy but without a plot other than kings try to conquer other kings but get killed by usurpers or family ( brothers, sons or grandsons). This goes on for all of recorded history through fall of Rome. ( beyond that is another book). Bought the book in hardback for reference. John Lee does great job in the narration. Fascinating history.

Thank you for reading this to me!

The book is a great summary of ancient history, and having the audible to hear the story, the pronuciations and the tone makes the content more memorable.

Fantastic!

Complete and brief at once. A great place to start a journey into history and the future.

This reading could put almost anyone to sleep!

Good details. The arrangement of information jumps around throughout the ages. Definitely need some ancient maps in-order to actually follow along.

Engrossing

Stylish, smart and easy to read. Bauer humanizes her history with the drama of countless characters while covering the momentous changes of man early history.

Good Ancient History narration and easy to follow

easy to follow, good narration, and interesting history, told well and easy to understand would recommend!

brings it together

An excellent breakdown of a huge chunk of time. a must read from this application

Wonderful telling of the histories we have

Would you consider the audio edition of The History of the Ancient World to be better than the print version?

Only listened to the audio version.

What other book might you compare The History of the Ancient World to and why?

I don't really have much experience with books about history.

Which scene was your favorite?

It is set up to cover China, the Middle East, Europe, North Africa and India in each eras. So it doesn't really have scenes. But I did enjoying hearing most about Egypt. But all the eras where interesting to me.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Nothing was too emotional, it was lively though.

Any additional comments?

I'm not a historian so I can't attest to any accuracy, but I did enjoy the whole series and it makes me want to read more about different histories and more by his author!

Masterfully Told

Be prepared for over 26 hours of storytelling that switches back and forth from the Mediterranean to Asia, ending up intertwining then both. Beautifully read and fairly objectively told.