Fall of Civilizations

Landmark world history from the creator of the top ten podcast Fall of Civilizations, for fans of Jared Diamond and David Graeber. Across the centuries, we journey from the great empires of Mesopotamia to those of Khmer and Vijayanagara in Asia and Songhai in West Africa; from Byzantium to the Maya, Inca and Aztecs of Central America; from Roman Britain to Rapa Nui. With meticulous research, breathtaking insight and dazzling, empathic storytelling, historian and novelist Paul Cooper evokes the majesty and jeopardy of these ancient civilizations, and asks what it might have felt like for a person alive at the time to witness the end of their world. Based on the podcast with over one hundred million downloads, Fall of Civilizations brilliantly explores how a range of ancient societies rose to power and sophistication, and how they tipped over into collapse.

Paul Cooper is a podcaster, a historian and the author of two acclaimed historical novels, River of Ink and All Our Broken Idols. He earned his PhD from the University of East Anglia and has taught there and at Warwick. He writes, produces and hosts the Fall of Civilizations podcast, which has charted in the top ten British podcasts and, since its launch in 2018, has garnered over one hundred million downloads and over one million YouTube subscribers.