How the World Made the West

For those who want to understand the roots of modern European powers and what is now called the "West," this book is an engaging tour through the tight millennia-spanning relations between present day Europe, Africa, and Asia. Quinn shows how even cultures typically viewed as emblematic of the ancient West - namely Greece and Rome - were successor states of other empires that spanned vast geographies. Beyond that, they were embedded within dense cultural, technological, and political ties that bound their developments inextricably to states far afield. Highly recommend