A Little History of the World: Illustrated Edition

Obviously this book is very dated but I like the way it puts world history in roughly sequential context. Believe it or not, I hadn't read a world history survey like this since high school and this was more comprehensive than that. (yikes!)

There seem to be some huge gaps in the way history is taught in the US (or at least the 90s education I received.). For example, I don't recall ever learning more about World War I than Ferdinand's death was the catalyst. Not the parties involved, resolution, even Wilson's intervention. All learnt after the fact.

I remember randomly spending a month on the French Revolution in a literature class. I could go on and on about the imbalance, but this little book is a nice survey of major world events up to the outbreak of WWII. It is, however, extremely euro-centric.