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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Culture : the story of us, from cave art to K-pop
Puchner, Martin
Ebook
The dawn of everything : a new history of humanity
Graeber, David
Paper Book
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow...
Guns, germs, and steel : the fates of human societies
Diamond, Jared M.
Ebook
**WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE** 'A book of big questions, and big answers' Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens Why has human history unfolded so differently across the globe? And what can it teach us about our current crisis?
Homo deus : a brief history of tomorrow
Harari, Yuval N.
Paper Book
Land : how the hunger for ownership shaped the modern world
Winchester, Simon
Ebook
From the bestselling author Simon Winchester, a human history of land around the world: who mapped it, owned it, stole it, cared for it, fought for it and gave it back. In 1889, thousands of hopeful people raced southward from the Kansas state line and westward from the Arkansas boundary...
Money : The Story of Humanity
McWilliams, David.
Paper Book
MONEY. The object of our desires. The engine of our genius. Humanity's greatest invention. Whether we like it or not, our world revolves around money, but we rarely stop to think...
The new silk roads : the present and future of the world
Frankopan, Peter
Paper Book
From the internationally bestselling author of The Silk Roads: everything you need to know about the present and future of the world'Masterly mapping out of a new world order' Evening Standard'Frankopan is a brilliant guide to terra incognita' The Times<...
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...
Proto : How One Ancient Language Went Global
Spinney, Laura.
Paper Book
*A GUARDIAN, NEW STATESMAN, PROSPECT AND WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2025* 'The fascinating story of ancient words ... new revelations await' The Guardian 'A magisterial feat' New Scientist ________________________________ One ancient language transformed...
Sapiens : a brief history of humankind
Harari, Yuval N.
Ebook
Why nations fail : the origins of power, prosperity and poverty
Acemoglu, Daron.
Ebook
Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2012.Why are some nations more prosperous than others? Why Nations Fail sets out to answer this question, with a compelling and elegantly argued new theory: that it is not down to climate, geography or culture, but...
The World : A Family History
Montefiore, Simon Sebag.
Paper Book
From the master storyteller and internationally bestselling author - the story of humanity from prehistory to the present day, told through the one thing all humans have in common: family. We begin with the footsteps of a family walking along a beach 950,000 years ago. From here, Montefiore takes us...

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