Hear, hear. I learned a long time ago that If you want a broad view of history, you have to see history as more than a set of dates and facts. My intellectual self became a lot more interesting once I came to understand it as a long string of causes and effects, an endless cycle of motivations, actions and consequences. And when viewed properly, these models have a lot to offer about where we're at and the trajectory we're on as a species.

For instance, the Roman Empire saw itself as master of most of the known world, but it was contemporary with many different Chinese dynasties which felt the same. This basic flaw in incongruous societal perceptions has a lot to say about the modern Era. Those societies knew very little, if anything, about each other. We have near universal literacy and a broad understanding of the existence of 'others' yet we have almost as many self-involved views of the world as people who live in it, and only rarely are we willing to agree on the actual reality of life. The lesson of history is that great societies crumble when individuals care more about themselves than they do about a mutually beneficial, cooperative understanding. If we were still a patchwork of isolated kingdoms/empires, we could lose a few, gain a few here and there and not really suffer for it. As it stands, we're a global society with many interdependent parts. How fucked are we going to be if we can't cooperate, especially given all the fucking nukes lying around?

That said, there are many good resources available which can serve as decent primers on a proper view of history. I can recommend the documentary series 'History of the World' by Andrew Marr, 500 Nations presented by Kevin Costner, a similar series from Down Under called First Australians, the book American Nations by Colin Woodard, the book Who Ate the First Oyster by Cody Cassidy, and perhaps a bathroom reader called Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of American History.