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 tour de force, almost

A remarkable piece of work which gives an extraordinary overview and manages give a taste of the subject matter without getting lost in the details. The last 400 years were a bit rushed but I don't think it was necessary to do that bit. The author could comfortably stopped with the effective establishment of the Roman Empire. Pace was generally speaking good - there were few places where I just wanted to get on with it. I have come away having learned a great deal and feel that an important contribution has been made to my already 67 year old education. Then also I have to say that while I found the reader's delivery irritating on occasion, his pronunciation of those middle eastern and Chinese names with I believe perfect consistency was amazing and, perhaps surprisingly, made its own independent contribution to my enjoyment of the book.
So why "almost" ? Alright, I bought into the premise that while we have little in the way of historical documentation surviving from the three or four thousand years BC we do have myths and it is possible that within those myths there may lurk the kernel of the truth so why not let's pretend that they are actual history. So when we got to talking about David and his achievements, I could not help but recall a recent BBC documentary which argued with some force that the almost total lack of archaeological evidence for David's architectural accomplishments stongly suggests that the Biblical David is a construct designed with political intentions and with little real history behind it. Not that I believe everything that is put in front of me, but The History does at some level purport to be an academic work. The uncritical acceptance of the Biblical version of David suddenly made me a whole lot less inclined to accept myth as the basis for history, even with tongue in cheek.'
Still, I doubt if there are many works around where the author demonstrates such a grasp of her subject matter, such an ability to put it into context and such a fund of well-selected material to illustrate her work..

Sources please!

This was an interesting and enjoyable book to listen to, but I'm very hesitant about its accuracy. I am not a historian but I did study Latin in college, and the section on Rome was riddled with errors and omissions, especially of the kind that come from trusting too much to a biased primary source with a salacious story to tell. I would probably still recommend it, but take it with a grain of salt--and don't repeat the stories as accurate lest you be met with the raised eyebrow accorded to gullible neophytes at dinner parties.

It was good.

Somewhat long and more in depth than what I was expecting, but it was enjoying.

A good survey, but ....

A good survey, but inexplicably takes Biblical folklore ( = everything in the Bible, nearly) at face value, and to a lesser extent takes much of the folklore that exists in the ancient world at face value.

Great writing marred by stilted performance

Why is it so difficult to find good audiobook narrators? This narrator doesn't narrate the book so much as he declaims it, as if it were an epic poem or something. His stilted performance wouldn't be very good for any book, but it seems especially ill suited to this book, which is written in a conversational and informal style. Also, the writer is a woman, so why didn't they find a woman to narrate it? Everything about this narration is strange and frustrating. I admit that I've heard worse performances, however. I can at least follow the sense of what he is saying--although that may be due more to the excellent, straightforward writing, now that I think about it. I have to concentrate quite hard on the words and not the voice, which eventually gives me a bit of a headache. Listening to this book is not a pleasure. I've been spoiled by really good narrators like, for instance, Jonathan Keeble. His conversational, relaxed narration would have been perfect here.

As for the book itself, I think I will like it a lot when I read it in hard copy.

Very Engaging!

It took me a whole school year to listen to it, but it was very worth it! The narrator is quite good and the content is well written and interesting.

Fingers crossed 🤞

I bet I'll love it, And I hope I do, my mother sau's it's a great book, so I'm taking her word for it, fingers crossed,😊🤞

The past continually repeats the cycles of power

illustrates the adage, "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it." empires rise and fall nearly the same way.

Ehh

Fairly well written however she seems like most hard line historians skeptical and unwilling to look at history outside the common view. She acts like she knows how the pyramids where built and the real symbolism and purpose of the Sphinx. In reality any person claiming to know either of those things at this point in time is speaking a foreign language they do not understand. I learned a lot but was not overall impressed by some

Great listen. I was absorbed from page 1.

Great listen. if you are interested in history, this is the place to start your journey