Lavihly illustrated, meticulously researched, and clearly written, ANCIENT EMPIRES presents a panoramic sweep of 3,000 years of history. Within the pages of this magnificent book, the reader will relive the drama and excitement of bygone civilizations.

Traces milestones of history from Constantine's unification of the western half of the Roman Empire under his name in 312 to the fall of Constantinople in 1204.

Twilight of Princes introduces the reader to the kings and their challengers, the statesmen and philosophers, the scientists and artists whose ambitions transformed their Louis XIV, the glittering symbol of absolute power who brought France to the apogee of its glory; Ch'ien-lung, on the other side of the world, who presided over an equally bedazzling Chinese Empire; James Watt, who devised the first efficient steam Henry Fielding whose rollicking Tom Jones set the English novel along lines it continues to follow; Thomas Jefferson, the Virginia patriot who drafted the American colonies' declaration of independence; Frederick the Great of Prussia, whose cynical deal with Catherine the Great of Russia and Maria Theresa of Austria partitioned Poland, thereby eliminating for a century a great sovereign state.

Traces milestones in history from the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 through the opening of Japan to international trade in 1854.