Fall of Civilizations

The world is full of ruins. From the Colosseum of Rome to the crumbling suburbs of Detroit, the vine-wreathed temples of the Maya to the shell-pocked buildings of Bakhmut and Gaza. Each of these ruins have a different history, but they share a single truth: they are all places where, one day, the future ended.

In Fall of Civilizations, historian Paul Cooper tells the stories behind our greatest civilizations, how they rose to power and what life was like for the people who witnessed their downfall. Based on the critically acclaimed podcast, this extraordinary book turns a clear eye on to humanity’s past mistakes – and whether we are doomed to repeat them.

PRAISE FOR FALL OF CIVILIZATIONS

‘Paul Cooper’s histories of fallen civilizations are brilliantly written: clear, compelling, and ultimately chilling as we are forced to accept the lost genius of ancient cultures and the inevitable ruination of our own. Full of fascinating detail and nuanced findings, you need to read this book’ Cal Flyn, journalist and author of Islands of Abandonment

‘Eminently readable… one can almost hear the spoken word as one reads. Yet Cooper has built his narrative out of close reading of the original sources… the author’s strength is his ability to evoke the physical setting of the great cities that lay at the heart of empires’ David Abulafia, Spectator

‘An instructive, engaging and compelling epic which reveals the fragility of human existence: magnificent triumphs and lamentable tragedies, the civilized and the barbarian. A timely tour de force of historical storytelling’ Ron Ramdin, author of The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain

‘Cooper draws parallels between fears for our own future and the colossal wrecks of fallen empires so that we may marvel at them and, perhaps, learn from them’ Tim Leach, author of The Hollow Throne