Books

Debt: The First 5,000 Years - David Graeber

And while you're at it, The Dawn of Everything by him, which will refute most of Sapiens suggested in another reply.

- Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall: A broad introduction to geopolitics that argues geography quietly constrains the choices available to nations. Marshall uses maps, mountains, rivers, plains, seas, and borders to explain why countries behave as they do and why some conflicts or alliances are hard to escape.

- Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford: A revisionist history of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire that emphasizes their role in connecting Eurasia through trade, law, communication, and cultural exchange. Weatherford presents the Mongols not only as conquerors, but as builders of systems that helped shape the modern world.

- The Anarchy by William Dalrymple: A history of how the British East India Company transformed from a trading corporation into a territorial power that conquered much of India. Dalrymple frames the story as one of corporate violence, political fragmentation, financial ambition, and imperial opportunism.

- Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson: A history of the effort to understand how Polynesian peoples settled the vast Pacific Ocean. Thompson blends anthropology, navigation, linguistics, archaeology, and European exploration history to explain both the achievement itself and the long-running debate over how it happened.

- The Restoration of Rome by Peter Heather: A history of attempts to rebuild or revive Roman imperial power after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Heather focuses especially on Theodoric, Justinian, and Charlemagne, showing how each tried to claim Rome’s legacy under very different political and military conditions.

- Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond: A sweeping attempt to explain why some societies became globally dominant by emphasizing geography, agriculture, domesticated animals, disease, and technology rather than innate human differences. The book is influential but controversial, with critics arguing that it can be overly deterministic and too broad in its conclusions, though it still contains useful observations about environment, food production, and historical development.

A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson sounds right up your alley. The follow-up 'At Home - A short History of Private Life' is good as well. The titles kind of explain themselves pretty well. He's a very engaging writer.

I'd like to color outside the lines of your request just slightly by recommending a palate cleanser, if you will: The Dollop podcast with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds. Their schtick is finding an oddball story from history, and doing a narrowlt focused deep dive on that subject. One host tells the story, the other is usually totally oblivious. Both are comedians by trade, so they riff throughout.

The educational value takes a backseat to the comedy bits, but there's still a pretty impressive amount of research which goes into the episodes, and their emphasis on weird, niche stories means that they're often talking about subjects which go unmentioned in general history education. A personal favorite episode of mine is The Jackson Cheese, which talks about a couple enormous wheels of cheese which were gifted to Andrew Jackson following his election to be President in the 1830s. That may sound dull as dishwater, but I've yet to hear anyone that's listened to the episode express that it was a waste of their time.

At any rate, if you want a break from "serious" history education, you can do a lot worse!

This may be too specific, but I really enjoyed Unruly by David Mitchell (as in Peep Show). It hits all the high/lowlights of each monarch of 'England' between Roman Britain to Elizabeth I.

The Canterbury Tales is a good one. It isn't a "learn about history" kind of book, but it gives plenty of insight into the common man in Medieval times, and it might fit the Medieval/prose vibe you're looking for. It's also well written and funny at times, along with being one of the most important writings of middle-english some time around 1400.

The Times Complete History of the World. Naturally it comes with some western bias, and unless you buy it second hand it’s expensive.

The age of extremes by Eric Hobsbawm gives an overview of the twentieth century and is an amazing read.

Sapiens

The forgotten soldier by Guy Sajer. A first person recounting of the life of a German infantryman on the eastern front.

Tim Snyder's books but he is more modern history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Snyder?wprov=sfla1

also a few of his talks on YT

Timothy David Snyder (born August 18, 1969) is an American historian specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust

The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins. It is about cold war history and how the US shaped the third world to its advantage. I think every American should read it.

Read Paris, 1919 by Margaret MacMillan.

Read Postwar by Tony Judt

Read the Warfare State by Fred J. Cook

And, while not strictly an historical work, The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein rounds out this series on how institutions "fuck up the endgame" — to quote from Charlie Wilson's war.

I mean, it depends on "history of what"?

If you're looking for a generalized Western history, that's more of a textbook kind of thing.

If you want specific locations and eras:

Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York by Lucy Sante is a great read:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374528997/lowlife/

Be aware, some older editions are published under her deadname.