World history

Bayly, C.A (2004). ​The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914. New Jersey: Whiley and Blackwell. - This book: explores previously neglected sets of connections in world history; reveals that the world was far more 'globalised', even at the beginning of this period, than is commonly thought.

Bennison, Amira K (2014). The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the ’Abbasid Empire. London: I.B Tauris. - The Great Caliphs creatively explores the immense achievements of the 'Abbasid age through the lens of Mediterranean history which lasted from 750 AD - 1258.

Chaudhuri, K. N (1990). Asia Before Europe: Economy and Civilisation of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - This book explores the dynamic interaction between economic life, society and civilisation in the regions around and beyond the Indian Ocean during the period from the rise of Islam to 1750.

*Cozzens, Peter (2018). The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West. London: Atlantic Books. - Peter Cozzens chronicles the conflict from both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail, bringing together a pageant of fascinating characters, including Custer, Sherman and Grant, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and Red Cloud. This is the tale of how the West was won... and lost.

Ehret, Christopher (2016). The Civilisations of Africa : A History to 1800. University of Virginia Press. - While most general histories of the continent focus on the period since 1800, Ehret takes the ambitious task of providing an overview of the past 22,000 years.

Hoerder, Dirk (2002). ​Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium. Durham: Duke University Press. - A landmark work on human migration around the globe, Cultures in Contact provides a history of the world told through the movements of its people. It is a broad, pioneering interpretation of the scope, patterns, and consequences of human migrations over the past ten centuries.

Honigsbaum, Mark (2013) A​ History of the Great Influenza Pandemics Death, Panic and Hysteria, 1830-1920​. London: Bloomsbury. - Through outlining the history of influenza in the period, Mark Honigsbaum describes how the fear of disease permeated Victorian culture

Hopkins, A. G (2002). Globalization in World . London: Pimlico. - Globalisation in World History has two distinctive features. First, it offers a categorisation of types and stages of globalisation that existed before the late twentieth century. Secondly, it emphasises a feature that the current debate greatly underestimates: the fact that globalisation has non-Western as well as Western origins

Iliffe, John (2017) Africans: The History of a Continent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - This is a very serious candidate for the most concise easy to digest book on the whole of Africa. Covers everything from precolonial Africa to the current issues that the continent faces

Keay, John (2010). India: A History. London: Harper Press. - A fantastic introduction to those who don’t know anything about Indian history. Keay covers everything from the Vedic era to Gandhi’s assassination.

*MacGregor, Neil (2016). Germany: Memories of a Nation. London: Penguin. - An excellent book that explores the history of Germany through buildings and objects from the Brandenburg Gate to notgeld currency from the Hyperinflation crisis of 1923.

McNeill, John (2000) ​Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century. London: W.W Norton & Company. - J. R. McNeill gives us our first general account of what may prove to be the most significant dimension of the twentieth century: its environmental history.

McNeill, William H (1963) The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. - An amazing work of scholarship that is very readable, This sweeping history covers world civilisation from its beginning in Mesopotamia to the mid-twentieth century. The book is divided into epochs of hundreds of years and describes the civilisation of each period in the different parts of the world: The​ West ( Europe and later the Americas), the Middle East, India and Asia.

Morgan, David (2007). The Mongols. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. - Morgan’s The Mongols is still considered the standard book to read for history of the Mongols. Morgan goes over the politics, religion, military, and government of the Mongols, as well as a history of the Mongol conquests and its effects.

Mote, F W (2003). Imperial China 900-1800. Havard University Press. - An easy to read book by the great Frederick Mote, covering the history of Imperial China from the fall of the Tang to the end of the High Qing. In addition to giving a general overview of events during this 900 year period, Mote also delves into other themes such as culture, philosophy, religion, economics, etc. Although Mote is unable to go into detail on many issues, his book is nonetheless an excellent starting point for those wishing to know more on Imperial China.

*Olusoga, David (2017). Black and British: A Forgotten History. London: Pan Macmillan. - Drawing on new genealogical research, original records, and expert testimony, Black and British reaches back to Roman Britain, the medieval imagination, Elizabethan ‘blackamoors’ and the global slave-trading empire. It shows that the great industrial boom of the nineteenth century was built on American slavery, and that black Britons fought at Trafalgar and in the trenches of both World Wars. Black British history is woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation. It is not a singular history, but one that belongs to us all.

Olusoga, David (2018). Civilisations: First Contact: The Cult of Progress. London: Profile Books. - A companion to the BBC series Civilisations In Part One, First Contact, we discover what happened to art in the great Age of Discovery, when civilisations encountered each other for the first time. Although undoubtedly a period of conquest and destruction, it was also one of mutual curiosity, global trade and the exchange of ideas. In Part Two, The Cult of Progress, we see how the Industrial Revolution transformed the world, impacting every corner, and every civilisation, from the cotton mills of the Midlands through Napoleon's conquest of Egypt to the decimation of both Native American and Maori populations and the advent of photography in Paris in 1839.

*Olusoga, David (2019). The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of the Empire. New York: Apollo Books. - In a sweeping narrative, David Olusoga describes how Europe's Great War became the World's War – a multi-racial, multi-national struggle, fought in Africa and Asia as well as in Europe, which pulled in men and resources from across the globe.

Pomeranz, Kenneth (2000). The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton University Press. - The Great Divergence brings new insight to one of the classic questions of history: Why did sustained industrial growth begin in Northwest Europe, despite surprising similarities between advanced areas of Europe and East Asia?

Watts, Sheldon (1999) Epidemics and History: Disease, Power and Imperialism​. Yale University Press. - This book is a major and wide-ranging study of the great epidemic scourges of humanity-plague, leprosy, smallpox, syphilis, cholera, and yellow fever/malaria-over the last six centuries. It will become the standard account of the way diseases arising through chance, through reckless environmental change engineered by man, or through a combination of each were interpreted in Western Europe and in the colonised world