Great ages of man; a history of the world's cultures

A cultural picture of America before Columbus. The author "has combined the testimony of the early Spanish chroniclers and missionaries, the illustrious travelers, the sociologists and especially the observations of the modern archeologists and anthropologists.".

Mesopotamia was the first place in which man created and sustained an urban, literate, technologically sophisticated society. Tracing the rise of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian cultures from 5,000 B.C. to the Neo-Babylonian empire of Nebuchadrezzar II, the author supports Mesopotamia's claim to the role of "cradle" of civilization.