Any era is welcome but I’m especially interested in modern history.
I know that having just one book which talks about the history of the whole world would be difficult but let’s see if you guys know something (series are welcomed suggestions too).
human world history
As opposed to what, cat world history?
Hahaha I was undecided whether to add “human” but I wanted to exclude natural world history, I mean I wanted to learn about human events
Maybe a little bit OT but if you enjoy a different perspective on the history of humanity I’d recommend Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman.
“It argues that people are decent at heart and proposes a new worldview based on the corollaries of this optimistic view of human beings. It argues against ideas of humankind’s essential egotism and malevolence. The book engages in a multi-disciplinary study of historical events, an examination of scientific studies, and philosophical argumentation in order to advance Bregman’s opinion that, this outlook is more realistic compared to its negative counterpart.” -Wikipedia
War Through the Ages by Lynn Montross
It basically tells you about every war ever, at least every one worth talking about. It was written in 1944 and revised in 1960 so I’m sure some of the information might be outdated but it’s still great.
12 Byzantine Rulers by Lars Brownworth
This is actually a series of audios that you can download for free. This is almost a history of the Byzantine Empire from beginning to end, but summarizes what was happening during the reign of less influential rulers and focuses on the reign of the 12 most influential. He’s also written books about the Byzantine Empire and other subjects that I’ve somehow never read.
There are a whole bunch. The two that spring to mind:
- The Dawn of Everything (David Graeber)
- Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari)
Both have blown many minds. Other ideas:
- A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson) - about science, extremely readable
- The Ancestor’s Tale (Dawkins) - evolution, the book the author is most proud of
- Collapse (Jared Diamond) - brace yourself because it’s convincing
Love a Bill Bryson recommendation 🙌
A seriously talented writer. I was hooked as a teenager in the 90s by his incredibly funny travelogs The Lost Continent and Neither Here nor There. Went on to read most of his other stuff, it’s really eclectic and all great.
Have you read “in a stranger here myself”? Always loved that one
One of the very few I haven’t. But will do now.
David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years. We all take debt for granted. It’s fascinating to learn how differently we’ve thought about it over the millenia and how much of our modern world makes more sense when understood through its lens.
Not sure if this is what your looking for, but Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari. Also Sapiens by the same Author.
- Power and Progress and Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and others.
- There’s also Freedom Rising by Christian Welzel. It’s quite technical, so many won’t find it engaging. I loved it.
- Violence and Social Orders by North, Barry, and Weingast.
Maybe A Brief History of Humankind by Harari. It’s about how society changed and it’s a very interesting read. Also the other books of Harari have a lot of history in it. But it’s more from a social science points of view and not really classic history.
- The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow
- How the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year History by Josephine Quinn
- Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber
Interested too…
I imagine the entirety of history would either be surface level, or a massive series of books. A book im reading on Operation Barbarossa is over 1000 by itself
