In GENIUS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, historian Bettany Hughes (Britain's Secret Treasures) travels to India, Greece and China to investigate the lives of three great philosophers: Buddha, Socrates and Confucius. These ancient trailblazers all lived between the 6th and 5th century B.C., a period that saw unprecedented economic growth, societal changes and intellectual development worldwide. Their radical ideas forever changed the way we think about crucial existential and socio-political questions, and they embodied the shift away from supernatural beliefs in favor of rational argument and logical reasoning. Drawing on archaeology and expert opinions, Hughes follows in the footsteps of these renowned figures in a quest to unpack their philosophy in the context of the age in which they lived.