By analysing what Francis Bacon termed 'remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time' Glyn Daniel describes the first civilizations from times of savagery and barbarism to the Sumerians, Egyptians, Chinese and Ancient Americans from 4000 BC to 1500 AD. Did these civilizations develop from one centre and the process of civilization take place once, and once only, in human history, or did it occur independently in different parts of the world? Were these civilizations linked in any way? These and other questions are discussed by Dr Glyn Daniel in this classic account of the civilizations of the ancient world.