I want to have a broad knowledge about the major events in western civilization, but it's such a big task that I don't know where to begin. Are there any good books that encompasses the totality of western civilization in a way that gives you a general idea of what the different time periods were and how they developed? I'd also be interested in listening to recordings of good lectures on the subject. Thanks in advance!
Check the book list in the subreddit's sidebar under 'general'.
Hi! I recently made that a habit as well and I'd suggest you start with periodization. If you don't have it already, you should get an overview of relevant epochs and breaks, e.g.: when did the modern era begin? When were the so-called Middle Ages? Antiquity? What date could be understood as a break between them? Then smaller ones, e.g.: Enlightenment?
I think it's a good idea to break these down on a timeline and write summaries for each era and century. This could be done with a random encyclopedia and at first - after all, you should do this seemingly trivial preparation, it helped me quite a lot. And then you can jump into details.
Davies' Europe is impressive collection of European history, starting in Paleolithic period and ending with current events. It focuses both on large scale of things and tidbits like evolution of pants or cutlery.