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
S
Saskatchewan Information & Library Services Consortium Regina Public Library
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Atlantic : great sea battles, heroic discoveries, titanic storms, and a vast ocean of a million stories
Winchester, Simon.
Paper Book
"Variably genial, cautionary, lyrical, admonitory, terrifying, horrifying and inspiring...A lifetime of thought, travel, reading, imagination and memory inform this affecting account." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Blending history and anecdote, geography and reminiscence, science and...
Cosmos
Sagan, Carl
Paper Book
The best-selling science book ever published in the English language, COSMOS is a magnificent overview of the past, present, and future of science. Brilliant and provocative, it traces today's knowledge and scientific methods to their historical roots, blending science and philosophy in a wholly...
The dawn of everything : a new history of humanity
Graeber, David.
Ebook
NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   Renowned activist and public intellectual David Graeber teams up with professor of comparative archaeology David Wengrow to deliver a trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental...
Guns, germs, and steel : the fates of human societies
Diamond, Jared M.
Paper Book
"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."--Bill Gates In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the...
Homo deus : a history of tomorrow
Harari, Yuval N.
Paper Book
International Bestseller From the author of the international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind comes an extraordinary new book that explores the future of the human species. Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestselling Sapiens:...
Land : how the hunger for ownership shaped the modern world
Winchester, Simon
Ebook
"In many ways, Land combines bits and pieces of many of Winchester's previous books into a satisfying, globe-trotting whole. . . . Winchester is, once again, a consummate guide."--Boston Globe The author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and...
Nexus Canadian Edition : A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Harari, Yuval Noah.
Ebook
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world. For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions,...
The origins of political order : from prehuman times to the French Revolution
Fukuyama, Francis.
Paper Book
ANew York Times Notable Book for 2011 AGlobe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title AKirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction of 2011 title Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which...
Pacific : silicon chips and surfboards, coral reefs and atom bombs, brutal dictators, fading empires, and the coming collision of the world's superpowers
Winchester, Simon
Paper Book
One of Library Journal's 10 Best Books of 2015 Following his acclaimed Atlantic and The Men Who United the States, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester offers an enthralling biography of the Pacific Ocean and its role in the modern world, exploring our relationship with this...
Sapiens : a brief history of humankind
Harari, Yuval N.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Destined to become a modern classic in the vein of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Sapiens is a lively, groundbreaking history of humankind told from a unique perspective.      100,000...
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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