The Big Picture - Macrohistories

Whereas microhistories zoom in on a topic, putting it under the microscope to study every detail from every angle, macrohistories zoom out. These are the "big" histories, the very long view, studying the past on a grand scale. Macrohistories do not focus on the individual, but on whole civilizations, and changes over centuries, even millennia. If you are a "big picture" person, these are the books for you!

Updated July 7, 2026
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Saskatchewan Information & Library Services Consortium Regina Public Library
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The Big Picture - Macrohistories

Whereas microhistories zoom in on a topic, putting it under the microscope to study every detail from every angle, macrohistories zoom out. These are the "big" histories, the very long view, studying the past on a grand scale. Macrohistories do not focus on the individual, but on whole civilizations, and changes over centuries, even millennia. If you are a "big picture" person, these are the books for you!

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Cosmos
Sagan, Carl
Paper Book
Renowned astronomer Carl Sagan's classic bestseller that "dives into the past, present, and future of science, dealing with the mind-staggering enormity of the cosmos in which we exist" (Associated Press)--with an Introduction by Ann Druyan and a Foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson ...
The dawn of everything : a new history of humanity
Graeber, David
Ebook
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution--from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality--and...
Guns, germs, and steel : the fates of human societies
Diamond, Jared M.
Paper Book
"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."--Bill Gates Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering...
Homo deus : a brief history of tomorrow
Harari, Yuval N.
Paper Book
Official U.S. edition with full color illustrations throughout. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original,...
Money : The Story of Humanity
McWilliams, David.
Paper Book
"Learned, lively and often irreverent, David McWilliams''s The History of Money is rich with surprising details about currency, then and now." --The New York Times In this fresh, eye-opening global history, economist David McWilliams charts the...
Nexus
Harari, Yuval Noah.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world. "Strikingly original . . . A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the...
Sapiens : a brief history of humankind
Harari, Yuval N.
Paper Book
#1 New York Times Bestseller * New York Times Readers' Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century * The Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama and Bill Gates Official U.S. edition with full color illustrations throughout. From renowned historian...
Why nations fail : the origins of power, prosperity and poverty
Acemoglu, Daron.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * From two winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, "who have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country's prosperity" "A wildly ambitious work that hopscotches through...
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