Watersheds of World History question

Comments from Phebe Harvey: I have read up to the preface and the first chapter. I find the perspective extraordinary. Your images are rich and lucid. Your command of the subject and your ability to communicate it intercedes for the breadth and depth that this material requires. The feeling that one has when reading it is quite expansive. Your interjection of present-day information, such as the image of the Egyptian fertile plain is well-placed and brings the past alive into the present. . . A masterful job so far. I am really enjoying it.