Vanished Civilizations

This book was written in 2002, and it shows. The format is a mix between the heavy use of text used in previous history textbooks and the incorporation of lots of images (a more modern trend) to keep the reader's attention. The layout is also reminiscent of early 2000's designs.

Aside from that this is still a good book for history fans. This book is called “Vanished Civilizations” for a reason. Most people know about the ancient Egyptians, Mayans, Romans, Vikings, etc. This book touches some of that but focuses mostly on older lesser known civilizations. In fact, most of the cities I had never heard of and I have a minor in ancient civilizations. (Mostly European).

The book provides a nice table at the start comparing what was going on across the different continents at the same time. I'd recommend reading that before starting this book. It gives the reader a nice backstory as to why everything is in the order it is. The book starts thousands of years ago. It starts before writing even existed. That should give you an idea about how old these civilizations are.

This is a nice book that covers a lot of information and a lot of cultures across a long period of time. It was a nice find. Not my favorite, but I think that has to do with its age. Aside from that, it was an interesting read for a summer afternoon.