Relevant Ask Historians books sidebar here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books/europe#wik...

Hmmm, maybe the book Guns, Germs, and Steel would be an interesting start. It's a beefy and detailed book, but interesting. Definitely a broad overview. Also, I think the made it into a movie. That might be more digestible.

I've always like Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast. He covers a broad range of subjects but they're ways great!

Ancient China is also really awesome to learn about. It's not studied so much in the west but they had some extraordinarily advanced civilizations and cities well before those in Europe. Japan, Egypt, the Middle East all have pretty mind-blowing histories.

He says he's "particularly [interested in] pre-classical Greece" but you recommend Guns, Germs, and Steel. I'm wondering why since the later is much more relevant to modern history (by modern I mean post 600 AD) than pre-classical Greek history.

    The isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece!
    Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
    Where grew the arts of war and peace,
    Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
    Eternal summer gilds them yet,
    But all, except their sun, is set.

-- Byron

Pre-classical Greece is about the earliest period of the "West" we have good documentation for, and is tremendously "romantic" to study. However beware of thinking of Greece as the wellspring of civilization; this will lead you to overlook the Arabic and Chinese civilizations.

Do you have any recommendations for reading about Arabic civilizations? I was under the impression that Arabia was, until Mohammed, an unimportant, remote backwater, vastly overshadowed and sometimes controlled by nearby (sorta) empires - Egypt, Rome, Persia, Sumeria, Lydia, Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria, et cetera.

How far down the rabbit hole? Want to start at the proto-indo-europeans?