What are some good books on ancient Rome (particular later in the Empire like right before or right after the collapse and split), Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient China and Renaissance France?

by BrentMusic

I know it's a super broad question but I'm writing a fantasy and I want to mix elements from these different places and time periods for the countries in my world and make a unique time period for the world. The idea being a couple of centuries after the collapse of an empire that once held the entire continent and forced everyone into their culture and afterwards there was a period of decentralized power but also the countries had a renaissance of their old cultures coming back and certain countries were more prosperous than others, some being split into smaller countries and a couple of empires forming. I'm looking for a few books for these places and time periods that could give me a good enough understanding about how people lived and the governments operated that I could actually get moving on this story. The only periods I'm even vaguely familiar with are Ancient Roman and Medieval England and France and I still know next to nothing.

The periods I'm looking for are:

Rome in the later stage of the Empire right around the collapse

Early Medieval England and France

Renaissance France

16th and 11th century BC in Egypt/The Middle East

1200-500 BC China

I'm interested in government structures, culture, daily life and technology.

Thanks for any info on any of these!

Bentresh

Have you checked out the AskHistorians reading list? It has a fair number of books on the Bronze Age Middle East in general and the Late Bronze Age in particular. I'm happy to provide additional suggestions on Egypt if you have specific topics in mind.