Books like A history of civilizations by Fernand Braudel

A compelling overview of American history through the eyes and experiences of its women, workers, African Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and the working poor.

Jared Diamond analyses why great civilizations collapse, linking environmental misuse, climate change, population pressures, and trade instability as common causes, and offering lessons from societies that survived.

A sweeping, nonfiction biography of cancer that traces the disease’s discovery, the development of therapies, and the lives of patients and scientists who shaped its history, earning a Pulitzer Prize and New York Times bestseller status.

An exploration of humanity’s scientific journey, charting discoveries that set humans apart from other species.

David S. Landes explores the historical forces that have shaped global wealth and poverty, arguing that open societies driven by work and knowledge, especially through invention, have led to economic and military success.

In the aftermath of recent financial crises, it's easy to see finance as a wrecking ball: something that destroys fortunes and jobs, and undermines governments and banks. In Money Changes Everything, leading financial historian William Goetzmann argues the exact opposite--that the development of finance has made the growth of civilizations possible. Goetzmann explains that finance is a time machine, a technology that allows us to move value forward and backward through time; and that this innovation has changed the very way we think about and plan for the future. He shows how finance was present at key moments in history: driving the invention of writing in ancient Mesopotamia, spurring the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome to become great empires, determining the rise and fall of dynasties in imperial China, and underwriting the trade expeditions that led Europeans to the New World. He also demonstrates how the apparatus we associate with a modern economy--stock markets, lines of credit, complex financial products, and international trade--were repeatedly developed, forgotten, and reinvented over the course of human history. Exploring the critical role of finance over the millennia, and around the world, Goetzmann details how wondrous financial technologies and institutions--money, bonds, banks, corporations, and more--have helped urban centers to expand and cultures to flourish. And it's not done reshaping our lives, as Goetzmann considers the challenges we face in the future, such as how to use the power of finance to care for an aging and expanding population. Money Changes Everything presents a fascinating look into the way that finance has steered the course of history.

Thomas Cahill’s "The Gifts of the Jews" explores the impact of Jewish ideas on the development of Western civilization, tracing how the ancient Jews’ view of time and individual destiny shaped concepts of progress, law, and liberty.

Charles Murray assembles a global inventory of 4,002 influential figures, tracing the rise of great accomplishment in arts and sciences from Homer to the present, and explores patterns, cultural concentrations, and declining rates of excellence.

From Dawn to Decadence traces the arc of Western culture from the Renaissance to the present, blending historical analysis with literary insight.

Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry weave science and wisdom traditions to chart the universe’s fifteen‑billion‑year story, highlighting humanity’s ecological role and the power of narrative in shaping culture.