What is history, really? At first glance, you might think this is a silly question. History is the study of the past: who did what, when, and where it happened. That’s all true! But history is also so much more.

History is a story, like a pick-your-own-adventure story. It’s a lens you look through to understand where you are now, how you got here, and where you might be going in the future. As Pearl S. Buck once said, “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”

History is happening now. And you are making history every day. A thousand years from now, historians will be listening to audiobooks, reading Tweets, and watching YouTube and TikTok to learn about what life must have been like in the early 2000s!

The scope of this book focuses on Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean regions due to the volume of information covered. However, we explore other ancient civilizations around the world in other books.

This book is not just for homeschoolers. We hope it will be used by any parent wanting to give their child knowledge of and an appreciation for ancient history and provide perspective on why studying history is essential. Use it in your curriculum or as a supplement. Hand it to your kid for rainy-day listening. Share it as a family activity. History has gotten a bad rap for being dry and dull. We think it deserves to be read as the fascinating, important, sometimes even hilarious subject it is!

You will learn about what makes a group of people a civilization, how they rise, and what causes them to collapse. Then, as we look at individual societies, we’ll explore things like:

• How they came to exist.
• What makes them unique.
• How they fit into their world.
• What contributions they left for future civilizations.
• What happened to them in the end.