Quote:
Originally Posted by bonaldo2000
I was wondering if any of you know of some good books that simply give an overview of the entire human history - similar to how the book "A Short History of Nearly Everything" gives an overview of the history of natural science.
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It's been a long time, but I remember reading and liking J.M. Roberts'
The New Penguin History of the World. Though it dedicates chapters to historical periods all around the world, the author acknowledges his eurocentricism -- knowing this in advance, I didn't find it a problem. However, it's not really the type of book which somebody with little to no historical knowledge can pick up easily, but is rather a book for the history buff who nevertheless has gaps in their knowledge.
To take a completely different tack, have you considered historical atlases? They often show historical overviews of various areas and periods very well, recounting events in a straightforward historical manner, and have maps of countries and kingdoms long gone by and little heard of. I can't recommend any of those personally, as the ones I have are probably too old to be still sold. I've heard the Oxford and Times editions come highly recommended though.