Felipe Fernandez-Armesto closely examines the world's societies, from the maritime civilizations of the Polynesians to the Dawada people of the Sahara. It is here that the author seeks the birth of civilization as we know it. Instead of stopping off at the usual cultural tourist spots of Imperial Rome, Enlightenment Paris and Renaissance Florence, Fernandez-Armesto takes us to unfamiliar territories that redefine our understanding of what it is to be civilized.The whole book is crammed with wonderfully anecdotal historical tales, shrewd insights and engaging arguments. In Civilizations Felipe Fernadez-Armesto has written an uniquely challenging and controversial work that shows us not just who we are, but also why we are.

'Fernandez-Armesto is a superb storyteller, with a barrel-full of anecdotes and a language as finely textured as any novelist's' Independent on Sunday