Picture the classic origin story of a baby hidden in a waterproof basket, set adrift on a great river, and pulled from the reeds to eventually grow up and alter the course of human history. Centuries before the story of Moses was ever written down, this exact legend was circulating in the ancient Middle East—not about a biblical prophet, but about a humble gardener's apprentice who went on to forge the world's very first monopoly. In this story-driven biographical profile, we sift through archaeological records, ancient clay tablets, and royal inscriptions to trace the spectacular rise and environmental collapse of Sargon of Akkad and the Akkadian state from roughly 2334 to 2154 BC.

Before Sargon, the ancient world was a highly fragmented patchwork of independent, squabbling city-states like Ur and Uruk, each fiercely protective of its own  ...