This is the first in a series of seven volumes written by a distinguished Belgian historian, covering the whole of civilization from the beginnings up to the 1950s. It's the first volume to be published in English, ending with the advent of Islam, including all the civilizations of antiquity from the earliest movements on the deltas of the Nile, the Indus, the Euphrates and Tigris, through the histories of Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome and China.