And the default (not always adhered to) for the Arab and Chinese
cultures was a political monolith (the Caliph or the Emperor),
not the pluralism found in ancient Greece and early modern
Europe.
> I'm interested in this too, though my current search is for a basic
> book on African civilizations.
I have a book called "A History of the African Peoples" that
might be what you're looking for. I don't recall the author's
name. It does cover some of the earlier civilizations, though as
I recall it's a little weak on the old Zimbabwean cultures
because it was written before a lot of the fruitful digs in that
area were analyzed.
-- Eric Watt Forste ++ arkuat@pobox.com ++ expectation foils perception -pcd