First time posting a threat here - so first of all, this sub-reddit is awesome - some excellent work and questions here.
I am looking to read into interesting parts of history. I want to read a book that gives a short in a nut-shell account of many things, and I will further explore history that appeals more to me. Something along the lines of '50 historical incidents that you should know about', but a bit more in depth.
A book that focuses on breadth and not depth would be appreciated. I have already checked the book list for this subreddit - but alas it is split topic wise and the books there have depth on a limited issue, rather than breadth and containing many issues.
hopefully someone here can help. I'd like to learn more about history - I consider myself an amateur historian so open to learning about everything!
Thanks
'The Age of Revolution' by Eric Hobsbawm is ideal, not only because it's a great read and covers a very broad range of topics from a key period in the development of European history. It's also an incredible introduction to some of the most important intellectual ideas that are essential to historical understanding, like the links between economic, political, military, social and cultural development. In this sense it provides a good broad foundation of historical concepts that you could then apply to any other historical topic you are interested in.
I have no idea when it was last updated but this sub (and several of the other history subs) has quite an extensive reading list: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books
I would like to see some specific additions to the middle east section in particular but it's a good start.