The History of the Ancient World is volume 1 of Susan Wise Bauer's trilogy. She covers from the earliest accounts to ~AD 300. The bulk of the work is on nations/empires in Mesopotamia (including Sumeria, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Parthia) and bordering the Mediterranean (including Egypt, Macedonia, Greek city-states, Rome). China and India are also given short treatments. Other regions aren't covered at all, presumably because our sources for ancient history are limited (not everyone had written records or left enduring artifacts enabling us to reconstruct their past).
Like her second volume, this is a good overview. It's mostly political, chronicling the rise and fall of empires. Her writing is good, succinct, easy to follow, and peppered with amusing asides. As with any history of this era, she has to speculate at times, but she does a good job balancing views and accounting for bias in the source material. What I appreciated most, interestingly, is how she gave different events in the Old Testament a historical context. This is another winner.
Rating: A
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