Rise and Fall opens with the Akkadian Empire, which ruled over a vast expanse of the region of ancient Mesopotamia, then turns to the immense Roman Empire, where we trace back our western and eastern roots. Next Strathern describes how a great deal of western classical culture was developed in the Abbasid and Umayyid Caliphates. Then it almost fell to a whirlwind invasion from the East, at which point we meet the Emperors of the Mongol Empire . . . A history of the world in ten empires.