The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection

This wonderful history of the world takes a unique approach in looking at major trends throughout time that were far more global than any particular locale or even empire. It is like the expanded prose version of a comprehensive timeline, linking such far-flung events such as dynastic succession in China with the European Crusades. Events in one place always had ripple effects that spilled out across the globe, influencing, directing, and leading to the next sweeping change. Viewing history in this comprehensive way gives you a much deeper understanding of why, perhaps, people have acted as they have, and why history unfolded as it did. From the earliest civilizations to empires to nation-states and finally to a globally interconnected world of information, readers discover connections, trends, narratives, and ideologies that lap and crash into each other, resulting sometimes in annihilation, sometimes in absorption, with results that are still felt today. Although it covers multiple millennia, it is a fast read, and whether you are a long-time history buff or a budding novice, this will give you multiple pegs on which to hang everything else, making constellations of sense out of disparate historical points of light.